The Quest
by Warrior of Ice
Summary: Take 10 college students, some of whom love each other, hate each other, or don't know the others exist. Add some magical powers, some interference from Pluto, and shake well. What do you get? A modern day quest for Endymion and Serenity. AU, senshi/gen
1. Chapter 1

_One_

Mina Barlow sighed happily as she leaned back in her chair and propped her freshly-pedicured feet on the desk. Life was good. It was a Friday afternoon, she already had a hot date lined up for her sorority's annual charity gala, and she had managed, without exerting much effort at all, to get a B+ on her cognitive psychology midterm.

Her zen moment was shattered by the strident voice of her neighbor, Cynthia. "…and you know what he was wearing? White board shorts. Who wears white board shorts in the fall? That's only acceptable in the summer. And that's not the worst part – the flowers on them were _brown_. It looked awful, like he'd had some kind of accident or something."

Mina rolled her eyes. Most of the time she loved her sisters, but the members of ΨΔΘ*, which had the reputation of being "the blonde sorority," certainly lived up to their name. Of course, she couldn't complain, since she was as blonde as the rest of them. She got up to shut her door, which muffled but didn't entirely drown out the rest of Cynthia's tirade.

As she made her way back to the chair, she noticed a very bedraggled, orange juice-stained sheaf of papers peeking out from under a pile of laundry. 'Oh, crap! It's that stat homework I was supposed to recopy after I spilled juice all over it!'

She glanced over at her alarm clock, whose glaring red numbers seemed even more ominous than usual. It was fifteen to five. Her cornflower blue eyes narrowed as she gauged her chances of making it to her to her TA's mailbox on time. If she ran, she could probably make it. She just hoped her work was still at least halfway readable.

As she sprinted down the hall, down the stairs, and out the front door, she heard Ashley, the Rush Chair, call after her, "Don't forget, tonight's the first rush event, Mina! Don't be late!"

Mina raced down the sidewalk, scattering dead leaves and curious onlookers in her wake. She almost paused to scope out some unbelievably hot eye candy – one was tall and black-haired, the other a blond, shorter and with a friendlier expression on his face – but she managed to keep herself on track.

'Must be seniors or sophomores,' she thought to herself. Mina knew the entire male population of her class, and these two didn't have the glazed-over look of freshmen. The blond was cute enough in a boy-next-door kind of way, but the dark-haired one brought "striking" to a whole new level.

She made it to the Triton Building with a minute to spare and didn't bother with the elevators. The sweet mix of victory and relief rushed through her when she discovered the pile of papers still in the TA's mailbox.

"Yes!" she exclaimed, shoving her homework in on top and punching her fist in the air. As she turned to go, Mina saw that while the department secretaries merely looked amused or bored, one guy, who looked to be about her age or a little older, shot her a dirty look.

She turned her nose up in the air and ignored his obvious disapproval. Unfortunately, he exited behind her, and she was stuck waiting for the elevator with him. As Mina tapped her foot impatiently, she noticed his gaze flick to her foot and then away.

'Geez. Is that grumpy look always pasted on his face, or is it just me?' she wondered, although she stopped tapping her foot. He'd been leaving a professor's office, she recalled. 'Probably a suck-up,' she thought, sneaking a quick peek at him as she preceded him into the elevator.

He was tall, broad-shouldered, and very fit. His muscle was well-distributed rather than concentrated in his arms or chest, which meant that he actually worked out the right way at the gym rather than focusing on the muscles he thought would impress girls. The eyes which regarded her with such disdain were an unusual shade of gray, pale and icy, and his hair was platinum blond. It must be her lucky day – what were her chances of spotting _three_ such good-looking males, who hadn't yet dated any of her sorority sisters and were therefore considered fair game, all in a single afternoon?

"Can I help you with something?" he asked stiffly, and Mina flushed when she realized she'd been staring at him.

"Uh, no." Extremely grateful that it was just the two of them in the elevator so no one else was there to witness her embarrassment, she turned her attention to the front.

He got out on the first floor, and Mina made a face at his retreating back. Just as she was about to exit on the ground floor, she noticed a slim black wallet lying on the floor of the elevator.

"Jerk must have dropped it," she muttered, flipping it open. Sure enough, the picture on the driver's license matched the guy's appearance. "Kenton Jamison…"

Her attention was distracted by her cell phone ringing, and she walked out of the building to pick up. "Hi, Kat."

"Mina, where are you? Ashley said she saw you running out the door _ages_ ago, and the event is about to start!" Katarina, the current president of the sorority, exclaimed.

"I had to turn in my stat homework. I'll be there in five minutes!" Mina exclaimed.

"You'd better be. Tardiness isn't becoming for our reputation." With that, Katarina hung up.

Mina groaned. It had only been twenty minutes. Ashley had had it in for her since freshman year, when her then-boyfriend had drunkenly confessed that he was only going out with her because Mina had refused to. They were also each other's main competitors for president next year. Up until this point, Katarina had been backing Mina, but her perpetual lateness wasn't helping.

Mina glanced down at the wallet in her hand. She didn't have time to try and find the Jerk – Kenton – now. He could be anywhere: the Triton Building was huge, and he could have left from the first floor exit by now. When she turned back to drop it off at the lost and found, a security guard blocked her way.

"Sorry, miss. The building's closed for the weekend."

She sighed. She'd forgotten that some of the buildings closed early on Fridays. 'I'll just have to track him down later. Tomorrow. Even if he is a jerk, it's pretty tough getting around without your wallet.'

She got back to the house just in time to hear the end of Ashley's sugary-sweet welcome speech. Rolling her eyes, she made her way through the crowd of hopeful freshman and sophomore girls to stand by her friend Rita.

"That was sickening," Rita whispered. She had even less love for Ashley than Mina did, since Ashley was constantly hitting on her boyfriend.

"I'm glad I missed most of it," Mina murmured back. She scanned the crowd, flashing a bright smile whenever anyone looked her way. She noticed a distinctive hairstyle in the back of the crowd, and her smile grew wider when she heard the owner of the hairstyle squeal, "I heard they have the _best_ desserts!"

"Who's that?" Mina asked, pointing discreetly.

"Oh, that's Serena Wallace," Rita replied. "She's really cute. I got to talk to her during that pre-rush event you had to miss. I think if she does well over the next couple of days, we'll take her for sure."

"I think I know the girl standing next to her – Molly? She seemed nice, too."

"Yeah, I thought so too. Her name is Molly Baker, and she's Serena's roommate. But Ashley and Cynthia said no. Something about her having a weird accent."

"What? She has a Brooklyn accent. How is that weird?" Mina demanded.

The other girl shrugged helplessly. "You know how they are."

Mina gritted her teeth. Just before they started inviting the girls into the house, she remembered the wallet she had shoved into her back pocket. "Hey, do you know a guy named Kenton Jamison?"

"I don't think so. Why?"

"Oh, I don't know," she said vaguely. "I saw his name somewhere, and it looked kind of familiar for some reason. I'm sure it'll come to me later."

Rita shook her head. "You're so random, Mina."

"I know!" she said gaily, then made a beeline for Molly and Serena and introduced herself to them, making sure some of her sisters took interest in them before she moved on to talk to the other girls.

* * *

As they left ΨΔΘ, Molly said nervously, "I don't know if rushing is such a good idea, Serena."

"Why?" her roommate asked curiously, her long pigtails swinging behind her. "Didn't you have fun?"

"I did, but I don't think they'll take me. They're all blonde and beautiful, and I'm not like that," Molly said sadly.

"Don't say that! Your hair is such a pretty color. They just seem all beautiful and poised because they're older."

The redhead pointed out glumly, "Some of them are sophomores."

Serena ignored this and continued, "Anyway, just because ΨΔΘ has the rep for being the blonde sorority doesn't mean _everyone_ has to be blonde. Rita isn't, and I'm pretty sure we met a few others who weren't. Come on, cheer up! You were the one who got us interested in all this, remember? And look what a great idea it turned out to be! Awesome food, great company, and lots of parties to look forward to. Don't be so down."

"That was before I realized I don't have a chance," Molly sighed. "But you should definitely keep going. I think you have a good shot. All of the sisters really liked you."

"They liked you, too! And we're in this together, you and me. If you don't want to rush anymore, then I'm not going to, either. But I think we should keep going, at least for a little bit," Serena coaxed as they neared their dorm.

"All right," Molly agreed pensively as they got in line to swipe their ID cards behind a tall, athletic-looking girl with brown hair and green eyes.

When they reached their room, Serena said encouragingly, "Mina was really nice, don't you think? And I liked Rita and Katarina, too."

Her roommate nodded as she hung up her jacket. "Me too. But some of the others were a little snobby."

Before Serena could reply, they heard a quiet knock at the door. "Come in!" Serena called.

The door opened to admit a tall, stylishly dressed woman. Her gleaming black hair held olive green highlights, and her skin was deeply tanned. "Hello. You must be Serena and Molly. I'm Trista Stevens, your GA. I'm sorry we didn't get to meet earlier, but I just got back to campus, so I wanted to stop in and introduce myself. I imagine you'll probably go to Julia or Nevan with most of your questions, since I'm not as familiar with the undergraduate curriculum, but if you have any questions or just want to chat, please feel free to stop by. I'm in room 521."

"Thanks!" Serena said, beaming. "It's nice to meet you."

After Molly echoed her greeting, Trista smiled a mysterious smile. "Well, I've got to introduce myself to the rest of your hallmates now, but I'm sure we'll see each other soon. Good night."

* * *

Zane Barlow was listening to music and working on his programming homework when he heard his roommate shuffle in. "Hey," he said, raising his hand in greeting without looking behind him.

"Hi," Melvin replied, his nasally voice sounding more breathless than usual.

Zane turned down his music and glanced over as Melvin carefully placed his backpack on his desk. "Are the guys throwing stuff at you again? I told you to tell me if they pull that shit again."

Melvin busied himself with rearranging his laptops. "They weren't throwing things."

Just after he finished speaking, the football players who lived next door passed their room, chuckling. One of them said to the other, "Did you see that? I just stuck out my foot and BOOM! He landed flat on his face, what a laugh."

Zane trained his gaze on Melvin. "So they tripped you."

"Not the same as throwing things," he mumbled, pushing his glasses further up his nose.

Zane sighed. He remembered, very clearly, their first meeting.

Approximately one month ago:

_ Zane snickered to himself as he read the other name on his door: Melvin Kelvin? If college was anything like high school, his roommate was going to get teased mercilessly._

_ He was in the middle of unpacking his stuff when a weedy-looking boy with messy brown hair and thick glasses showed up, breathing heavily under the strain of carrying two suitcases. His mother, an overbearing woman who was a tad on the heavy side, rushed in carrying more than Melvin._

_ "You must be Zane," she said, offering a large hand. "I'm Barbara Kelvin, Melvin's mother."_

_ He stood up politely, brushing the dust off his palms before shaking her hand. "That's right. Nice to meet you, Mrs. Kelvin."_

_ "Just call me Barbara, dear," she told him, before she turned her attention to Melvin. "Sweetheart, put those down before you give yourself an asthma attack. Where's your inhaler? Did you bring the two extras like I told you to?"_

_ As she rummaged around in search of the inhalers, Zane gave Melvin a sympathetic look. "Hey."_

_ "Hello," Melvin replied, wheezing slightly. _

_ Zane helped them bring in the rest of Melvin's things, and then Barbara dragged Melvin off somewhere – he couldn't be sure, but he thought it was to introduce Melvin to the people at the front desk and to make sure they were aware of his food allergies._

_ They were living on a program floor for people interested in science and technology, which meant that a lot of the students were engineers or prospective math and computer science majors. Zane couldn't figure out why two football players had been assigned to their floor, but it wasn't long before they started in on Melvin and making snide remarks about his mother. _

_ Luckily, Melvin got along well with most of the techies on the floor because of their shared passion for Star Wars, anime, and Linux. He just couldn't handle the bullying from the football players and some of their other hallmates. _

_Ordinarily, Zane wouldn't have bothered looking out for anyone except himself, particularly at the beginning of freshman year. But he figured he couldn't stand seeing his roommate scurrying into their room nervously whenever his adversaries were drunk, which was often, so Zane tried to put a stop to things when he was around. _

"So what's new?" he asked to change the subject.

Melvin's face took on a beatific expression, one Zane had only seen when Melvin was fiddling with his graphics card and other computer components. Instead of answering, he asked shyly, "Zane, do you ever think about…"

"Yeah?"

"Love?"

The shock sent him into a sudden coughing fit.

Looking concerned, Melvin asked, "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, fine," Zane answered, clearing his throat. "Just swallowed the wrong way. So, uh, love? I've been known to think about it. On occasion. Why do you ask?"

Melvin fiddled with his plastic watch nervously. "Well, there's this girl…"

He leaned forward curiously, waiting to hear what kind of girl his roommate was interested in.

"…her name is Molly, and she's really nice. She lives in Charon Hall, and we're in the same writing tutorial. But she's way out of my league."

"You're selling yourself short, Melvin. Have more confidence in yourself." Zane hoped he wasn't setting the guy up for a painful rejection, but on the off chance that this Molly girl was into nerdy guys… "Maybe you should find out more about her."

"Like what?"

He rolled his eyes. "You know. What she likes, what kind of guys she's into, if she's seeing anyone right now. That last one's a biggie. You don't want someone kicking your ass for making a move on their girl."

"I'm pretty sure she doesn't have a boyfriend," Melvin said nervously. "She seems really busy right now, though."

"Yeah? With what?"

"She's rushing a sorority."

Zane, who had just taken a gulp from the half-finished can of soda on his desk, spit out his mouthful. "What? She's a sorority girl?"

Melvin took off his glasses and meticulously wiped the lenses clean. "Well, she's not actually in the sorority yet. I think she's rushing ΨΔΘ."

"The blonde sorority? Oh, no, no, no, Melvin my friend. Are you out of your mind? Guys like us don't go after girls like that.

"You were just telling me to be more confident."

"I was. You should be." Zane got up to pace around the room, kicking aside some of the junk littering their floor. "The problem's not with you, it's with this girl. Sorority girls are trouble. They'll chew you up and spit you out, and that's if they even bother to give you the time of day."

Melvin asked, "Isn't your cousin in ΨΔΘ?"

Zane gave him a pained look. "Yes. Trust me, Mina's been making my life hell since before I could talk. Anyway, we're engineers, Melvin. Does that mean anything to you? We have the reputation of being the dorkiest guys on campus. We're not popular; we get made fun of by the popular kids. We speak Javascript and Klingon, not shoes and hairstyles."

His roommate frowned pensively. "Molly's not like that."

"Well, you just wait until she's inducted," he predicted in a dark tone.

"Weren't you hanging out with Theresa and Sara Ann last weekend? They're in sororities, but they didn't seem to have a problem with you being an engineer," Melvin pointed out.

Zane smiled angelically. "That's because they didn't know I'm an engineer." His smile turned into a wicked smirk as he tossed his bangs out of his eyes and added, "Besides, I didn't ask them to go out with me. I just wanted to…'hang out' with them."

As he turned back to his work, still looking as smug as the cat that ate the canary, Melvin booted up his computers with a sigh. In times like these, only anime therapy would suffice.

* * *

"I hate Fridays," Ami Ellison said dismally, even though no one was around to hear her. She had a single on the third floor of Mariner Hall, a rare luxury for freshmen, but her mother had been happy to pay the additional rent – anything to help her concentrate on her studies, of course.

Unfortunately, having a room all to herself wasn't going to make a difference when the bass next door was throbbing loud enough to give her a massive headache. She actually felt seasick, which was a new experience for her, as Ami never got seasick. She knew she wasn't going to be able to get any studying done in her room, so her best recourse was to stay at the library until it closed. Unfortunately, it was only a temporary solution, because the library closed at 9 pm on Fridays. She just hoped she would be able to fall asleep later.

As she shoved her books into her backpack, Ami wished she had learned social skills instead of calculus. She regretted fostering good study habits instead of friendships. She paused when she heard one of the girls who lived in her hall sobbing about how she had done something unmentionable with a guy she'd met at a party and how he didn't want anything to do with her now that he was sober.

Ami winced as the girl started wailing inconsolably. Maybe it was time to rethink that desire to make friends. She wasn't sure she would have wanted to fit in with the girls in her dorm. After a few minutes, she poked her head out into the hallway cautiously and decided she was safe. The crying girl seemed to have disappeared into her room. She locked her door and headed for the stairwell, but she ran into Christine and Nicole as they exited from Kimberly and Lisa's room.

"That was beyond pathetic," Christine said, and Nicole nodded in agreement, her heavily mascaraed eyes glittering with malice.

When they noticed Ami, they stopped and scrutinized her. She shifted uncomfortably as their critical glances lingered on her heelless shoes, knee-length skirt, and old-fashioned cardigan.

"Oh, hi, Ami. There's a party going on in Jason's room," Christine told her, naming the owner of the hellish bass. "Why don't you come with us?"

"Thank you, but I'm on my way to the library," Ami said, hoping that would be the end of the matter.

"The library?" Nicole asked, as if she had said "landfill" instead of "library."

The two exchanged incredulous looks. Christine said, "Honey, it's a Friday night. You should get out more. Come on, the party'll be fun."

Ami couldn't think of anything that sounded less fun at this point, except going back into the room to have her temples pummeled by the bass until she vomited, or stripping naked and running around campus.

"Parties aren't really my thing," she said weakly, looking down at her feet.

"Whatever," Nicole said in a bored voice. "Come on, Christine, if she doesn't want to come, she doesn't want to come."

They linked arms and walked off together in the direction of the bass. Before they were out of earshot, Ami heard Nicole ask, "Why did you invite her, anyway? She'd stick out like a sore thumb there. All Little Miss Perfect ever does is study. She'll be lucky if a guy ever looks twice at her."

Ami walked into the stairwell, navigating the stairs blindly as the tears pricked her eyes. 'It's not true. Even if it's true, I don't care. My life doesn't revolve around boys and clothes and drinking.'

A nasty, needling voice in her head added, 'That's right. Your life revolves around biopolymers and manifolds and algorithms. That's the way it's always been, and that's the way it always will be.'

She swiped her sleeve across her eyes and walked out of Mariner. Although there were a lot of students out on a Friday night, she didn't recognize any of them, and she hadn't made any close friends since coming to college. She had never felt so alone.

* * *

Rei Hino gritted her teeth, glaring at the piece of paper her partner had ripped out of his notebook. She _hated_ group work. Refusing to let the project ruin her weekend, she had suggested – all right, insisted – they meet on Friday night. It served the dual purpose of getting the work out of the way early and ruining his night if he was into the party scene. He certainly looked the type, with his neatly cropped blond hair and good looks.

Unfortunately, he had been completely unfazed and readily agreed to meet on Friday. His reaction had surprised her, and Rei didn't like it when people surprised her. Her eyes narrowed as she scanned the paper again, carefully entering the digits. She pressed the "call" button, wondering if he would even pick up.

He did, on the second ring. "Hello?"

"Hello? Is this Jayden?"

"Yeah, that's me."

"This is Rei. Rei Hino. Your partner for Pre-Modern Japanese History?" she reminded him.

Over the phone, his voice sounded both relaxed and amused, just as it did in person. "I know who you are, Rei."

She sniffed audibly. "Just in case you needed a reminder. Anyway, I was calling about our meeting tonight. I forgot that the library closes early on Fridays, so we should probably meet somewhere else."

"Oh, right. Well, how about a study lounge? Do you live in one of the dorms?"

"I live in Magellan," she said rather unwillingly, wishing she didn't have to share the information with him.

Jayden responded, "Great. I live in Miranda. Do you have a preference for either of those places?"

She debated her options. She could make him walk over, which was an enticing choice…but then he might suggest moving to her room if all the lounges were full or noisy, and she didn't want to let him into her room. "I'll meet you on the second floor of Miranda."

"Sounds good to me," he said agreeably. "I'll see you at nine, then?"

"Yes. See you later," Rei said tersely, ending the call.

When she reached Miranda, she was surprised to find him already waiting on the second floor. She hadn't expected him to be prompt, let alone ten minutes early.

"Hi," he greeted her. "How's your night going?"

"All right. How are you?" she asked coolly.

"I'm doing well. I think the Myerson Lounge is free," he said, pointing it out to her. When they went in, she found that he had already plugged in his laptop and had the textbook open on the table.

As Rei took out her own textbook and notebook, Jayden asked, "So, no plans for tonight?"

"Obviously not, or I wouldn't have suggested we meet at this time. Am I keeping you from something?"

Instead of taking offense at her unfriendliness, he just raised his eyebrows and replied, "Not at all. I'm not really into the party scene, either."

The assumption irked her. Rei considered telling him she was into parties just to make him think he'd pegged her incorrectly, but decided it wasn't worth the effort. "Do you have any ideas about what we should do our project on?" she asked instead. She was expecting something vague and stereotypical, like "samurai" or, even worse, "geishas."

But Jayden just smiled calmly and answered, "Well, I came up with two projects I think would be interesting. The first would be to analyze the strategy of the Minamoto samurai in deflecting the Mongol invasions during the Kamakura period. The second would be how visual art in pre-modern Japan reflected societal issues of a specific time period."

It took considerable effort to keep her jaw from dropping. "I see. So you think that art reflects life, rather than the reverse? Because I happen to think it's both rather than one or the other."

He waited for her to finish presenting her case, listening attentively without making any attempt to interrupt. When she came to a triumphant finish, Jayden said, "That was a very elegant argument. I agree with you completely. I just happen to think that arguing from one viewpoint is more controversial and, as a result, more interesting."

"What? You want to be controversial? This isn't a debate class. It's a history class."

He inclined his head. "Of course. History can be very controversial. I would also point out that it's a history class, not an English class. I doubt the professor will be quibbling over the finer points of what represents what. Of course, we could discuss both sides of the matter, but I think we'd have a difficult time keeping within the page limit."

"Fine!" she snapped, unwilling to argue with him further. "Let's go with the first topic, then."

Jayden's smile widened. "Great. That was the one I was more interested in."

Rei's irritation only increased over the course of the night, when she discovered that he knew more about Japanese history than anyone she had met at college so far. Of course, he didn't know as much as she did, a fact he readily conceded. That just made her more annoyed. So did his insistence on walking her back to her dorm when they were finished.

"I have a boyfriend, you know," she informed him, hoping that would end the matter.

"Did you want to call him and have him walk you back instead?" Jayden asked, his azure blue eyes dancing with mirth.

"No."

He blinked innocently. "So he would rather have you walk back alone, in the dark, after midnight, all the way across campus just to escape my nefarious clutches?"

Rei's glare would have left scorch marks on anyone else. As it was, Jayden just accepted her graceless acceptance without further comment. He didn't even try to make conversation as they walked back to Magellan Hall.

Rather than go into the building with her, he stopped at the gate. "It was nice working with you, Rei."

She mumbled something – he could almost make out "Thanks for walking me back." Almost.

"Well, good night, then. See you in class on Monday."

Rei watched him walk off, whistling cheerily, and stabbed her key into the lock viciously. She wondered if she could make an exception to her rule about not cutting classes. Just this once. Or maybe for the rest of the semester.

* * *

Sometime past noon the next day, Mina dragged herself out of bed. As she sat down on her unmade bed, yawning sleepily, her eyes fell on Kenton's wallet. "Great," she muttered. She found his address through their student directory easily enough, but it took her another hour to shower and make herself presentable.

As a result, it was half past three when she strolled into the lobby of his apartment building. It was one of the most expensive places for students to live, but she knew for a fact that the rooms were much less impressive than the lobby.

Since she'd been here to visit friends before, she knew how it worked. She went up to the security desk and smiled cheerfully. "Hi. I'm here to see Kenton Jamison. Could you call him for me?"

"Name?" the guard asked in a bored voice.

"Um…" Mina was fairly sure he wouldn't recognize her name, and she didn't want to say, "Oh, he doesn't know me, but I've got his wallet." After a few seconds of quick thinking, she came up with, "I wanted to surprise him! Can you just tell him someone's here to see him?"

"All right," she agreed skeptically, giving Mina a dubious look. Her movements were painfully slow as she looked up Kenton's number and dialed the phone. "Hello? Is this the resident in room 519? This is the front desk. You've got a visitor. Should I let her up?"

Without saying goodbye, she hung up the phone and turned back to Mina. "He says he'll come down."

"Okay. Thanks!" The guard gave no sign of having heard her, so Mina leaned against the counter and began inspecting her fingernails. Luckily, they hadn't chipped during the mad dash from her house to the Triton Building.

Within a few minutes, one of the elevator doors opened and the guy from the day before stepped out. He looked around, as if hoping to spot someone else in the lobby, but when it was clear she was the only visitor, he walked up to her slowly.

"Hi. You must be Kenton. I, uh, I'm Mina. We kind of met yesterday but not really. At the Triton Building."

He said nothing for a minute, letting his cool gray gaze bore through her. "I remember you. You're the girl in the elevator, the one who made such a fuss in the stat department."

Mina felt her face starting to burn. "Right. Well, anyway, you dropped your wallet in the elevator, but um, you left before I could give it back to you." She handed it to him expectantly, waiting for him to drop the act and be properly grateful.

Instead, he just took it with a mildly surprised expression. All he said was, "Thank you for going out of your way to return it to me."

"Oh, well, not a problem. I didn't have plans for today anyway, and Triton closed early on Friday, so I figured you'd want this back before Monday." Mina knew she was babbling, but something about Kenton made her feel like she had to explain herself.

If it were any other guy, a nice, _normal_ guy who was as good-looking as Kenton but didn't have the social skills of shower scum, she would have flirted with him and teased him about owing her a date for bringing back his wallet. Talking to him was like talking to a rock, but worse. At least rocks didn't make you feel bad.

"Well, I guess I'll be going now. Bye!"

She walked off quickly, without waiting to hear if he said anything else. With every step she took on the way back to her house, Mina saw red. It was a miracle that she was still able to spot the familiar figure with long, wavy brown hair playing football on the quad.

"Hey, Mina!" he yelled, handing the ball off as he jogged over to her. He took one look at her and did a double take. "You look kind of pissed. What's going on?"

"I just met the most obnoxious jerk in the world," she informed him.

"That's too bad. I thought you said I was the most obnoxious jerk in the world. Want me to beat him up for you so I can reclaim my title?"

Mina gave him a considering look. Nevan was around the same height, and he was pretty fit. He might be able to take Kenton. "Nah. He's not worth the effort. I'll think of a new title for you."

"All right, if you're sure." He grinned at her charmingly and asked, "Want to play football with us?"

She gave him an incredulous look. "Uh huh. You want dainty little me to get all dirty and bruised playing in the mud with you guys? You think _that_ will make me feel better?"

Before he could answer, one of his friends shouted, "Stop flirting and get your ass back here, Starre!"

Mina waved her hand at him languidly. "Go on. I'm heading back to the house. Are you coming to the party tonight?"

Nevan was in a fraternity, but he didn't live in his frat house, preferring the relative quiet and minimally superior hygiene of the dorms. Although he attended many of the Greek events, he wasn't as into the scene as Mina was, preferring to pay more attention to his double major in astronomy and classical studies and his job as an RA in Charon Hall.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world. Catch you later!" he called as he ran back, expertly intercepting a pass.

His friend Joe, the one who had told him stop flirting and get back to the game, nudged him in the ribs. "So when are you going to ask her out?"

"Huh? Who, Mina?" Nevan laughed, keeping his eyes on the ball. "We're just friends."

"Sure. Dude, are you brain dead? She's, like, only the hottest girl in our year. Are you one of those guys who doesn't date sorority girls or something?"

"No. Remember Alicia? And Kristen?" he asked, naming two of his two ex-girlfriends, who had also been in sororities. "Anyway, Mina's cute, but she's just not my type."

Joe thumped him on the shoulder. "What the hell is wrong with you? Mina Barlow is every guy's type."

"Whatever. Go be QB," he ordered. He didn't want to tell any of his friends that he was hung up on a freshman in the hotel school who lived on his hall, one who had endlessly long legs, masses of soft brown curls, and sparkling green eyes.

* * *

*As far as I know, this isn't the name of an existing frat or sorority.

'' is for thoughts, "" is for spoken words

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of (fan)fiction. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, places, etc. is purely coincidental. Please don't take this fanfic seriously! I am well aware that all sorority girls are not airheads, all TAs are not jerks, etc. and it is not my intention that readers should receive this impression. The characters' experiences are not modeled on real college experiences – the majority of the situations are caricatures for the purposes of providing comic relief or fleshing out the background/setting.

Who's who:

Usagi: Serena Wallace

Minako: Mina Barlow

Rei: Rei Hino

Makoto: Lita Aronson

Ami: Ami Ellison

Mamoru: Darien Shields

Kunzite: Kenton Jamison

Jadeite: Jayden Luminar

Nephrite: Nevan Starre

Zoisite: Zane Barlow

and you may be able to spot some cameo appearances by other SM characters…


	2. Chapter 2

_Two_

Lita Aronson bit her lip as she looked over her economics homework. She loved her electives, which were in Food and Beverage Management, but the core courses she had to take for her hotel administration degree were killing her. She sighed, putting her head down on her desk.

Finance? Business and hospitality law? Microeconomics? She had never been a star student in high school, and the difficulty she was having with her first-year classes confirmed her fears that she had gotten into Apollo University out of sheer dumb luck.

Her stress was compounded by the fact that she was here on scholarship. If she didn't manage to score above the minimum GPA, she would be put on probation. That meant no more extracurricular activities, like the kenpo and aikido clubs she had joined. And if she didn't manage to do better after being put on probation… Well, she couldn't bear to think about that possibility.

Lita was slogging determinedly through her problem set, wondering why the x's wouldn't cancel out like they were supposed to, when she heard a quiet knock at the door. She leapt up, only too happy to escape her misery.

She opened the door to find Trista, the GA for the fifth and sixth floors, standing there. "Hi, Trista!" she greeted cheerfully.

The older woman smiled warmly at her. "Hello, Lita. How are you doing?"

"I'm all right," Lita said, casting a resigned glance at her homework.

"I stopped by to tell you there's a Presentation you should attend in Titan Auditorium. It starts in about fifteen minutes."

"Oh, no!" Lita exclaimed, trying to locate her wallet, keys, phone, and shoes. She came up with one sandal and a five-dollar bill. "I really need to get a planner. I keep swearing I'll get to it…one of these days."

Smoothly, Trista said, "Don't worry, Lita. We have plenty of time – it won't start without us. And in this case, that planner might not have helped. These things can come up…rather suddenly at times."

As they stepped out into the hall, she added, "I'll head over with you. We're just waiting on Nevan; I sent him to fetch another student. We can all walk over together."

"Is this event for all the freshmen or something? Or a hotel school presentation? Lizzie's still in class," Lita said, anxious that her roommate, Elizabeth Hansford, might miss out on something. The girls had become fast friends over the past two months.

"No, it's not. Some older students will be there as well. Ah, here they are," Trista said, her eyes on a tall brunet being trailed by a short blonde girl whose hairstyle was strangely reminiscent of meatballs.

Lita swallowed hard as they approached. Nevan Starre, her RA, was hot enough to make her forget about her lingering crush on Andrew, Lizzie's older brother. Unfortunately, she didn't know if he was into her at all, and the unspoken interdiction on hallcest went double for dating your RA.

Sounding unusually stressed, Nevan complained, "I can't believe they told us about this at the last minute, Trista. And I never got the e-mail about it! When was it sent?"

"I'm just the messenger," Trista replied serenely. "Come on, we don't want to be late."

Nevan grinned at Lita, and she smiled back shyly. To her disappointment, he moved up to walk with Trista as they left Charon Hall, leaving her next to the blonde.

"Hi," the other girl said cheerfully. "I'm Serena Wallace."

Lita liked her open, friendly smile. "I'm Lita Aronson. It's nice to meet you. Hey, don't you live on the fifth floor?"

"That's right!" Serena confirmed. "What year are you? Do you know what you're majoring in yet?"

"I'm a freshman. I'm actually in the hotel school, so I don't really have a major. How about you?"

Serena shrugged. "I'm a freshman, too. I have no clue what I want to study, though. I was thinking about communications or linguistics, so I'm taking the intro courses for those, but I want to try a fine arts course next semester."

"Those sound really interesting," Lita said, thinking that Serena's classes sounded much better than financial and managerial accounting. Not as exciting as wine tasting or culinary theory, though.

"They're okay," the blonde said. "Academics aren't my strong suit. But your classes must be much cooler! I don't know many students in the hotel school – do you get to take any cooking classes? I'm horrible at cooking, but I love food!"

Her big blue eyes were shining, and Lita found her smile hard to resist. "Oh, not so much. Most of my classes are in hotel administration, but I love cooking. I want to open my own restaurant one day. I try and use Charon's kitchen to practice whenever I have free time."

"Really? If you ever need a taste tester, count me in!"

Lita laughed, surprised that someone would volunteer so readily to be her guinea pig. "That would be great!"

Ahead of them, Nevan remarked, "They seem to be hitting it off." He turned his head, as if to take a quick look back at both girls, but he really only had eyes for one of them.

Trista also glanced back, smiling slightly. "They do, don't they?"

* * *

Ami wandered the halls on her way to the auditorium, wondering why the huge, Gothic building seemed so deserted.

Earlier that day, a woman with long black hair had handed her a flier announcing the first meeting of a new pre-med society. Normally, Ami wasn't much for clubs, but she might pick up some useful advice, and she thought that it would be nice to actually get to know the people in her pre-med classes and maybe have someone to study with. Another voice in her head added that it couldn't hurt to check out the competition.

The silence of the building was starting to creep her out, and Ami wasn't usually one to scare easily. The sound of approaching footsteps made her jump, but she was relieved to see another student when he came into view.

He was middling-tall for a guy, with sleek black hair and piercing blue eyes.

"Hello," she said shyly. "Are you here for the pre-med society meeting?"

"Yes, I am. I can't remember what room it was supposed to be in, though," he admitted. Some of his remoteness faded as he gave her a rueful smile.

Ami answered, "I think it's in Titan Auditorium." To be sure, though, she pulled the neatly folded flier from her pocket and reexamined it.

"Great," he said, leading the way. "I'm Darien, by the way."

"Ami," she said softly.

"Are you a freshman?" he asked her.

She smiled shyly. "Yes, that's right. Is it that obvious?"

Darien replied, "Well, it's just that you're quite petite."

"What year are you?"

"I'm a senior. I was invited to speak about the application process."

Ami thanked him as he held open the door to the auditorium for her. She was about to ask him what schools he had applied to, but she was distracted by the sound of raised voices.

"Why are we the only two people here?" a pretty girl with long, raven black hair demanded. For a moment, Ami thought it was the same girl who had handed her the flier, but she soon saw that this girl was a little shorter and had much paler skin.

She was speaking to – yelling at – a guy with short, tousled blond hair. "How am I supposed to know? I got an e-mail about the classroom change, too. Maybe someone's trying to prank us."

"I don't like jokes," the girl responded irately.

Ami thought she heard the blond mutter under his breath, "I can tell."

Just then, the pair noticed her presence. Only the stage was illuminated; standing behind Ami, Darien was nearly invisible. "Are you also in Pre-Modern Japanese History?" the girl demanded.

"Um, no," Ami answered. "We're here for the pre-med society meeting."

"Rei?" Darien asked suddenly from behind Ami. "What are you doing here?"

She turned her head abruptly to stare at him. Her expression was suddenly much more welcoming, but now she seemed even more puzzled. "Darien? I thought my class was rescheduled. What are you doing here?"

"The same thing as she is," Darien answered.

"There can't be a club meeting now," the blond told them, "we're supposed to have class here."

"It was rescheduled," Rei reminded him. "Maybe the professor rescheduled again if he found out that another meeting was going on here, and we just didn't get the update. I haven't checked my e-mail again since this morning. Oh, this is so frustrating!"

"Calm down," her classmate said. "It's not the end of the world." Her response was a smoldering look, so he shrugged and said, "Looks like the professor's not showing up. We should just head out and get the notes from someone who made it to class."

He headed for the nearest exit, but before he reached it the door swung open to reveal a guy with blond hair and green eyes. "Hey. Is this the nanotech exhibit?" he asked, craning his head to look around the near-empty auditorium. "It doesn't look like there's much going on yet."

"I have no idea," Jayden responded. "It seems like there's supposed to be a class, a meeting, and now an exhibit going on here, all at the same time, except there's absolutely nothing here."

As he finished speaking, the back and left side doors opened to reveal a tall, imposing guy with platinum blond hair and a blonde with a large red bow in her hair. The blonde took one look at the other newcomer and turned pink. "What are _you_ doing here? You're not in my cognitive psychology class."

"I should ask you the same question," he replied coolly. "I somehow doubt you're taking Modern Political Thought this semester?"

She bristled. "Are you implying that I'm too stupid to take a political science course?"

"Not at all. I'm just saying that you don't seem like the type."

Before their argument could escalate, Jayden stepped in and said, "Wait, are you guys saying that you expected your psych and polisci courses to meet here today?"

They nodded in confirmation, and he frowned. "Something fishy is going on here."

"I'll say," Rei muttered, still glowering at him, as if the entire mix-up was his fault.

Suddenly, the doors at the back of the auditorium again, and a large group of students came in.

"That's the woman who handed me the flier," Ami said quietly. Only Darien and Rei, who had moved to stand closer together, heard her.

* * *

Trista's gaze moved over those assembled before her. Mentally, she checked everyone on her list off, smiling in satisfaction when she spotted Zane. The class and club excuses had worked well for most of them, but Zane had the greatest tendency to skip his classes, so she had sent him the announcement about a nanotech exhibit.

She made a subtle gesture, and the doors locked. Until she chose to open them again, the doors would remain sealed. Calmly, she walked down the carpeted aisle, leaving Nevan, Serena, and Lita behind. She passed Ami, nodding to the wide-eyed girl, and ignored the others as she ascended the stage steps.

"Hello, everyone. I'm glad to see you all here today. Please, have a seat."

Most of them did so, looking confused, but Rei planted her feet mulishly. "Who are you, and what is going on here?"

Trista smiled at her calmly. "My name is Trista Stevens, and I'm currently a GA in Charon Hall. Now, please take a seat. This may take awhile, and I'm sure you'll be much more comfortable sitting down."

She ignored Rei's protests as Darien found them seats between Ami and Serena, the latter exchanging confused glances with Lita and Nevan.

"The ten of you were chosen to participate in a very special Presentation today," Trista began, only to be interrupted by Jayden.

"Excuse me, Ms. Stevens. That's very flattering, I'm sure, but I don't wish to participate. Good afternoon." With a backwards look at Rei, Jayden got up and headed for the door he had entered through. When he got there, he found out that he couldn't open it, even after he threw his entire weight into the task. He turned back to her with a betrayed look on his face. "It won't open. Why have you locked us in here?"

Serena started to freak out. "Oh my gosh; we're locked in? Trista, why are we locked in?"

Darien rolled his eyes. "Quiet down, Meatball Head. Freaking out doesn't help. I'm sure there's an explanation for this." With that, he turned his cool gaze on Trista, ignoring Rei's startled stare.

"Please calm down, everyone. I assure you, you're perfectly safe. Jayden, I would advise that you take your seat again." He stayed in place, staring at her with angry eyes. She shrugged and continued, "As Darien says, yes, there is a perfectly legitimate explanation for why the doors won't open. I merely need a few minutes of your time. Once I have said all I wished to say, you will be free to leave."

"All of us?" Ami asked.

"All of you," Trista confirmed with a nod. "And Serena, please stop looking so worried. I'm your GA; I'm responsible for your safety, after all."

"You are acting awfully weird," Nevan put in, although Serena looked relieved.

"I mean you no harm. Now, as I was saying, the ten of you were Chosen for a very special task. Before I explain the task, however, allow me to tell you a story." She paused for a moment, then reconsidered. "Are any of you familiar with the tale of Selene and Endymion?"

Nevan spoke up. "I do. It's a Greek myth." At Lita's impressed look, he tried to look modest and said, "I'm majoring in Classical Studies."

Ignoring this aside, Trista invited, "Why don't you outline it for us?"

"Uh, sure," he said, looking somewhat bemused. His cleared his throat, and when he spoke again, his voice echoed strangely. Ami would have chalked it up to the excellent acoustics of the auditorium, but it seemed that there was something more to what he was saying, something important, something with weight and presence.

"Selene was the moon goddess in Greek mythology. In many of the later stories, she was replaced by Artemis. She fell in love with Endymion, who was mortal and supposed to be either a shepherd or an astronomer. In some versions of the myth, Selene asked Zeus to grant Endymion eternal sleep so he could never leave her. In other versions, Endymion himself made the decision to live forever in sleep so she could visit him every night."

Trista smiled at him. "Thank you, Nevan. Actually, Selene and Endymion were quite real, although her name was Serenity, not Selene. They lived several millennia ago, but their story is not the same story as the one you just told us. Serenity was the Moon Princess, and Endymion, far from being a shepherd, was her white knight, the Prince of the Earth."

"I'm not here for bedtime stories," Rei said scornfully, standing up again.

"Sit down," Trista commanded, a hint of steel in her voice. To everyone's surprise, including her own, Rei sat again.

"As I was saying… While they were alive, there was an entire advanced civilization on the Moon. All traces of it have since been wiped from existence." Her expression turned sad now, and she cleared her throat before continuing, "Serenity was the daughter of the woman who ruled the Moon, a wise and enlightened queen. At the time, the Earth and the Moon were forbidden from interacting with each other. However, Serenity and Endymion managed to meet secretly and fall in love. They carried on their forbidden love affair until a great evil began to invade the solar system. It began with the Earth, but each of the planets fell in turn, until only the Moon Kingdom was left. Endymion managed to escape Earth and seek refuge on the Moon, but even with his help, they were unable to save the Moon Kingdom."

Ami found herself getting caught up in the story, even though she was skeptical of there being an advanced civilization on the Moon. Surely the astronauts would have found traces of it by now. Serena and Lita were listening with dreamy looks, while Kenton and Rei just looked annoyed.

"The Moon fell, but the queen, Serenity's mother, managed to seal away the great darkness. To do so, she sacrificed her own life. Her dying wish was that her daughter and her daughter's love, Endymion, would be able to begin a new life one day, free from the threat of evil. But she knew that such a thing might be impossible, since evil always threatens where there is good."

All of them shivered at her last sentence. Trista raised her glance from the floor, meeting each of their eyes in turn. "The time has come, now, for the ten of you to find the Moon Princess and the Prince of Earth, who have been reincarnated as mortals in this time, and to release them so they may live in peace, together forever."

That was when all chaos broke loose.

"I don't know what you're on, lady, but that's a load of crap!" Zane interjected loudly.

"'Release' them?" Kenton asked in a tone of deep mistrust. "That sounds an awful lot like killing someone. None of us are going to be a party to that."

Patiently, Trista said, "No one is going to be killed if I can help it, Kenton. I assure you, releasing the souls of Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion will not kill their mortal incarnations. Now, if you agree to the Quest – and all of you must agree, or there is little chance of succeeding – you will be granted the use of certain powers. Magical powers that will aid you during your pursuit of…the end of the Quest."

"Magical powers?" Mina asked. "There's no such thing."

A mysterious smile teased the corners of her mouth. "Are you so certain?" A second later, Trista pulled a long staff shaped like a giant key seemingly out of thin air.

"Parlor tricks," Darien said dismissively.

"But there's no place she could possibly have hidden that thing," Lita pointed out, eyeing the staff that was as tall as Trista herself.

"It could be an illusion," Kenton replied.

Trista held out her hand, and a ball of dark green light gathered in it. It stayed there for a few moments, pulsing slowly, until she closed her hand into a fist and it disappeared.

"A mere light show could accomplish the same thing," Jayden scoffed.

She nodded. "Well, certainly my powers are not very impressive. But I believe, if you need further proof, you should take a look at your watches."

Ami glanced down at her wristwatch. Its hands were frozen at exactly three o'clock, the time the meeting was supposed to have started. "My watch has stopped," she said out loud.

From around her, similar exclamations of shock issued forth. "It's just a coincidence," Jayden said, although he was starting to look shaken.

"Eight watches?" Serena asked. She and Nevan were the only ones who didn't wear watches. "All at the same time?"

Zane shrugged. "It could be something about the auditorium. Maybe there's something here that reacts with our watch batteries."

Trista smiled again. "Why don't you check your cell phones? They should be more reliable and…less subject to interference than wristwatches, wouldn't you think?"

All of them dug out their cell phones, which also showed the time to be three o'clock. When they tried to change the time manually, the displays stubbornly stayed at three o'clock.

"All right," Kenton said disgustedly. "You've got us trapped here, and you've fed us some unlikely fairy story. Didn't you say you'd let us out after we listened to you? What if we just say, you win, we believe you, and you let us out? We all go on our way and forget any of this ever happened. You can't keep us here forever, after all."

"Oh, but it doesn't work that way," Trista told him. "You all must agree to accept or reject the Quest. If you accept, there are…certain rules. The agreement is binding."

"So you'll keep us here until we accept?" Ami asked nervously.

"No, of course not. But you must definitively accept or reject the Quest. Once each of you has given your answer, you are free to go."

"Well, that's easy," Mina said. "We all just say no, and we leave." She looked around for confirmation, and several heads around her nodded. Despite their agreement, no one wanted to be the first to say "no".

There was a strange sensation in the air, of their being caught between two very different worlds. In the dark of this echoing auditorium, there was the possibility that magic could be real, that legends could come to life.

Trista's expression turned mournful. "Where is your sense of adventure? Your belief in the impossible, the wondrous, the utterly fantastic? You are close to giving up the chance of your lifetimes, and believe me, you only get one chance."

"I believe in hard science, not magic tricks," Zane offered. Ami and Darien nodded in agreement.

She stepped down from the stage now, and a strange, white light surrounded her. Some of them shrank away, but Serena leaned forward slightly, as if mesmerized. "Very well, then. If the taste of adventure isn't enough, how about another type of incentive? One hundred thousand dollars. Each."

A stunned silence fell over them.

"How do you have that type of money?" Kenton asked suspiciously. "Are you wanted by the law?"

Trista gave a merry laugh. "Oh, no. I assure you, I haven't done anything illegal. I merely do not suffer from the same financial stresses that plague ordinary people."

She stepped closer to him, and it seemed as if for a moment, they were the only two people in the world and everyone else was frozen. "I imagine that you'd be able to find a lot of worthwhile uses for that money… invest it in stocks or a startup company, for example. Or maybe you'd rather use it to pay off your college tuition so you won't owe your parents anything?"

His eyes widened before turning hard and cold. "What do you know about my parents?"

"Just an educated guess."

Kenton said determinedly, "If I need money, I'll make it the hard way. The real way. With my own two hands." He gave her a thin smile and said, "I'm sure you if you know that, you'll also know that my career prospects after graduation are excellent."

"Of course," she agreed, "but this – this is for a good cause. And you are fond of good causes, aren't you? Let me assure you, this is no walk in the park. You will be using all those skills you'll take to your job and working harder than you ever will be on that job. It will also be much more fulfilling."

She passed him and moved on to Ami and Darien. "Such an amount would go a long way towards the rather sizeable amount of debt you will be soon be incurring in medical school. I have no doubt you will be able to pay off that debt after some years of practicing, but wouldn't it be nice to start in the clear, without that worry hanging over your heads?"

She stepped closer to Ami, speaking so Darien couldn't hear them. "You've been lonely for a long time now, haven't you? Even before college."

Ami nodded, lowering her eyes to the floor in embarrassment.

"Don't be sad, Ami. Sometimes, the most precious friendships are ones that are most difficult to form. Look around you. If you choose to accept the Quest, it will bind the ten of you together in a way that can only help, not hurt, friendships. And it will not be just because of the Quest that you become friends. All of you…complement each other in certain ways. In another time, given meetings under different circumstances, you would have been friends, with or without the Quest."

With a flick of her wrist, Trista froze them in place, leaving them to think over what she had said to them and ensuring that only the one she was currently speaking to would hear her words.

Lita looked up at her wistfully. "I wouldn't be a scholarship student anymore. And once I graduated… One day, I'd be able to start my own restaurant for sure."

Trista's expression softened, and she reached out to touch Lita's shoulder. "Yes, exactly so. Don't be so worried, Lita. As you're thinking, money isn't everything. But even this sum is a paltry reward in comparison to the service you would be rendering. And as much as you deserve it, you aren't catching a free break. This is something difficult, something only you were chosen to do, and something entirely worthy of the reward."

She moved on to the others, one by one, wooing them with the words she knew would bring each of them closer to accepting the Quest. The final decision, however, would be up to them.

At last, she came to Jayden, who looked at her sardonically. "Money won't induce me to take part in a harebrained scheme like this," he informed her.

She didn't look the least bit fazed. "Oh, I know that. I thought you might be one of the most difficult to convince, Jayden Luminar. While you are very close to rejecting the Quest, think about what you're really saying 'no' to. When was the last time you had a true challenge, when you truly stretched your mind and talents to their limit? The Quest will do exactly that."

"I can keep myself occupied," he told her, his azure eyes glinting.

Trista smiled at him. "No doubt. You have always had both of your feet planted firmly on the ground, Jayden. And yet, something about that world you've abandoned since childhood still calls to you. You think you've rejected it utterly, but a part of you still needs to see it disproven. The Quest will help you find out that in fact, the world isn't as boring and mundane as you think it is, and you will be much happier in this life than you would ever have been without it."

With that, she walked away from him, her strides long and elegant and precise. She clapped her hands twice, and everyone stood and turned to her, blinking as if they had suddenly woken from a dream. "I will give you a few moments to discuss with each other, and then… the matter will be decided."

To their surprise, she vanished from view.

"There must be a hidden trapdoor," Nevan said, boosting himself up to examine the stage.

While he did so, Jayden tried the doors again. "Still locked," he said grimly.

"Nothing here!" Nevan announced from the stage a moment later.

Mina suggested, "Why don't we just sit and talk about it? The quicker we come to a decision, the quicker we can get out of here."

"No one said we all had to say 'yes' or 'no,'" Darien reminded her. "Although I can't fathom why anyone would want to say 'yes.'"

"Why not?" Serena asked softly, looking up at him with a gaze so hopeful and trusting that it was discomforting. "It could be true. And even if you don't believe it, it sounds like…fun."

He frowned at her. "This is real life, not fairytale land, Meatball Head."

Mina stepped in and said, "There's no need for name-calling here. Everyone's entitled to their own opinions."

Serena looked at her gratefully while Zane sighed, resignation clear in every line of his body. "Don't tell me you want to get mixed up in this, too."

Mina's face lit up as she spotted him, and she ruffled his hair affectionately.

"Ouch – no – you're messing up my hair, Mina," he whined, ducking away from her hands and trying to smooth it down.

Kenton, who had been silent so far, raised his voice. "Let's do this in an organized manner. We'll take turns and state whether we want to accept or reject the Quest." Although he was unaware of it, he was starting to say the word the way Trista did, adding a certain significance to it. "Perhaps that will satisfy her."

After some quick discussion, the others agreed.

"Excellent. So we go around – state your name and your opinion on the matter." He nodded to the person immediately to his right, who happened to be Serena.

"I'm Serena, and I want to accept the Quest."

Some of the others drew in their breath or opened their mouths to argue again, but Kenton shot them a quelling look. He turned his gaze to the brunette who was seated beside Serena.

"My name is Lita, and I… I think I want to accept the Quest."

Darien, who was next, said simply, "I'm Darien. I reject it."

"I'm Rei, and…I want to accept the Quest."

He swung around to stare at her. "Rei, what are you saying?"

The dark-haired girl reached out and squeezed his hand gently. "Darien, please calm down. I know this whole thing seems suspect and while I don't appreciate being locked in here, something is telling me to say yes.

"My grandfather is a priest of a Shinto temple. He has the ability to read signs in the sacred fire sometimes, and as far as I know, they always come true. Before I left Japan, my grandfather told me I would be set a great challenge in my second year away from him. That's this year."

Frustrated, Darien said, "He could have been talking about anything! _College_ is a challenge, Rei. It could be your next midterm or interview, or deciding what to do with the rest of your life. It doesn't have to have anything to do with this!"

Rei shook her head. "I don't think so. My grandfather told me the choice was mine to make, but that if I accepted the challenge, it would bring me joy beyond my wildest dreams, and a sense of belonging that I've never had, all while performing a great and noble deed. I don't think passing a midterm will do it for me."

"Fine. I can see I won't be able to talk you out of this. But if you're going to do it, then I will too," Darien said, running his hand through his hair distractedly.

Nudging Lita, Serena whispered, "He sure is chivalrous for a guy with a bad attitude."

"Very well. That's three – no, four – for," Kenton tallied.

"My name is Ami, and I vote not to accept the Quest." Rei's words about joy and belonging reminded her of Trista's, but her faith in the existence of a scientific explanation for everything and the thought of what her mother would do if she allowed herself to be conned into believing in magic were too strong.

"I'm Nevan, and I accept the Quest." He smiled reassuringly at Lita, who had been looking very nervous for the past couple of minutes.

Mina went next. "I'm Mina, and I accept the Quest."

Zane groaned and said, "Since you don't have any brothers, I guess it's my job to keep you out of trouble." He puffed out his chest and said, "I'm Zane, and I accept the Quest."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Zane, you're my younger cousin. _I've_ been looking out for _you_ since preschool, when the bullies on the playground made you their special target."

While he flushed beet red, Jayden, who seemed to have been undergoing an intense internal debate, muttered, "You're all nuts. I'm Jayden, and I reject the Quest." He crossed his arms defiantly as he looked around at the others, but when no counterarguments materialized, he seemed almost disappointed.

Kenton was the only one left now. Slowly, reluctantly, he said, "I'm Kenton. I…accept the Quest." He was stunned when the words left his mouth, but for some reason, he didn't feel that he wanted to take them back.

While Rei and Darien argued quietly for a few moments, Mina, Serena, and Zane went to work on Ami. In the meantime, Jayden looked at Kenton and Nevan curiously. "What's your story? Why are you guys buying this?"

Nevan shrugged. "I study astronomy and classical studies. There are thousands of stories that are just a little too supernatural in nature, and a little too consistent to be fake. I've always wondered whether something like this could be out there, and I figure… it can't hurt to give it a shot. Besides, I've known Trista for awhile. Even though she's hard to get to know, I believe she's a good person. She's very well-regarded, and she's a serious academic."

Jayden shook his head. Nevan's instincts and desire to believe in a little hocus pocus just weren't going to cut it for him. "What about you, Kenton?"

"Just call me Kent," he said, grimacing slightly. "Only my parents call me Kenton. I still think the whole thing is very odd, but…the whole stopping time thing really got to me. My watch still says it's three o'clock, and my cell phone is permanently stuck there.

"I don't know Trista at all, and I'm certain I've never seen her before. But she knows things about me, things that only I could know. There's no way she could have read some top-secret file on me and pegged me so neatly. It just seems like the answers to figuring this out lie in accepting the Quest." He smiled grimly. "And I'm not afraid of getting caught up in some kind of hoax. I know who to go to and what to say if this turns out to be bogus."

The blond sighed deeply. It was more difficult to dismiss Kent's words than Nevan's. He glanced over at the others; it seemed like Mina, Serena, and Zane had managed to convince Ami. Rei and Darien had finished their argument, and she walked over to him while Darien sat down by himself, looking grouchy.

As Kent and Nevan left to join the others, Rei raised an eyebrow and asked, "Still holding out?"

"What's it to you? Our acceptances or rejections aren't contingent on each others'. If I say no and you say yes, we go our separate ways and life moves on. Besides, you sure changed your mind quickly. Just a little while ago, you were absolutely furious, convinced that Trista was going to blow us up or something."

Stiffly, Rei said, "I thought she was working for my father. That was before she explained things. Of course I don't trust her, but her words have a certain…resonance."

Incredulously, he asked, "Your father plays these types of games with you?"

"That's none of your business. Anyway, I thought you wanted to be controversial, that you were supposed to be so open-minded. But right now, you just seem very unimaginative and closed-minded to me." With that, she spun on her heel and walked away.

Jayden glared at her back. "I am too imaginative," he mumbled to himself. "And I said I was controversial. Groundbreaking. Not a sucker."

He gave the group a look of deep antipathy, then sighed and walked over to them. "Fine. I'm in."

"Yay!" Serena squealed, ignoring his sulky disposition, and he started to smile despite himself.

Just then, a burst of light caught their eyes, and Trista reappeared on the stage, smiling at them. "So. I see you have come to a decision."

Quite a few of their members still looked grumpy, but they all nodded.

"Then I have one more thing to tell you all. Any Quest like this, which promises such valuable returns, involves a certain element of risk and danger. As I said before, I swear that I mean you no harm. However, you may find your new powers startling or even frightening. Things will start happening at the university that you may find alarming, and the magic that pervades these grounds, once awoken, is very potent."

She looked around at them all very seriously. "Now, I'll need you to come up to me one by one and tell me your decision. If you choose to accept the Quest, I will touch you briefly on the forehead, and by doing so, transfer those powers to you."

Kent stepped forward. "I'll go first. What do I say?" he asked her.

Trista smiled, as if highly amused. "It doesn't really matter, as long as your purpose is clear and your heart is true. Traditionally, however, the acceptance is phrased as such: 'I, Kenton Jamison, choose to accept the Quest and pledge to fulfill it to the best of my ability.'"

He repeated the words dutifully, and she replied, "I confirm your acceptance, and grant you the powers of Lord Kunzite."

A flash of silver light passed through the minute space between her fingertip and his forehead, and the others gasped or cried out in shock. He stepped away a second later, blinking.

"Are you hurt?" Mina couldn't help asking.

"No. That just felt…very strange." He grinned suddenly. "Like sticking your finger into an electric socket, only without the pain, just the energy coursing through you."

"Great," Jayden muttered as Mina went up the steps. "Just what I've always wanted to feel."

"I, Mina Barlow, choose to accept the Quest and pledge to fulfill it to the best of my ability."

"I confirm your acceptance, and grant you the powers of Venus."

Mina gasped as golden light drenched her. When she moved away, her cheeks were slightly flushed.

"I, Zane Barlow, choose to accept the Quest and pledge to fulfill it to the best of my ability."

"I confirm your acceptance, and grant you the powers of Lord Zoisite."

A dark green spark leapt from Trista's finger to Zane's forehead, and he, too, looked awed as he stepped back and exchanged wondering looks with Mina and Kent. "I hope you were smart enough not to really stick your finger in an electric socket, Kent."

To Mina's surprise, Kent gave the younger boy a rare smile. "Of course not. I wouldn't put it past either one of you, however."

"Shut up," she hissed. "You're ruining the moment."

The two of them smirked at her but managed to keep their mouths shut for the reminder of the Presentation.

"I, Darien Shields, choose to accept the Quest and pledge to fulfill it to the best of my ability."

"I confirm your acceptance, and grant you the powers of Elysion."

Another gold flash passed between them, but Darien seemed mostly unmoved by this process, keeping his eyes on Rei as she took his place.

"I, Rei Hino, choose to accept the Quest and pledge to fulfill it to the best of my ability."

"I confirm your acceptance, and grant you the powers of Mars."

She closed her eyes as red light washed over her, looking the most peaceful they had seen her all afternoon.

"I, Serena Wallace, choose to accept the Quest and pledge to fulfill it to the best of my ability."

"I confirm your acceptance, and grant you the powers of the Silver Imperium."

Serena actually smiled as Trista pressed her finger, which was glowing a soft white, to her forehead.

"I, Nevan Starre, choose to accept the Quest and pledge to fulfill it to the best of my ability."

"I confirm your acceptance, and grant you the powers of Lord Nephrite."

A glint of midnight blue passed between them, and Nevan's expression became as beatific as Serena's as he stepped away.

"I, Lita Aronson, choose to accept the Quest and pledge to fulfill it to the best of my ability."

"I confirm your acceptance, and grant you the powers of Jupiter."

Another pulse of green light lit up the auditorium, and Lita, whose eyes were shining more brightly than ever, walked over to stand by Nevan.

"I, Ami Ellison, choose to accept the Quest and pledge to fulfill it to the best of my ability."

"I confirm your acceptance, and grant you the powers of Mercury."

Ami closed her eyes nervously, not sure of what to expect. Trista's fingertip touched her skin lightly, and an amazing warmth spread over her. She opened her eyes just in time to see the blue light receding from view.

Jayden was the last to step forward, his face completely blank as he said, "I, Jayden Luminar, choose to accept the Quest and pledge to fulfill it to the best of my ability."

"I confirm your acceptance, and grant you the powers of Lord Jadeite."

A tiny, pale blue glint jumped between them, so small that it was almost invisible, but too bright to be ignored. When Jayden moved away, his expression seemed almost hopeful.

Zane cleared his throat, breaking the almost-reverent hush that had fallen over them. "So now that we have these, uh, magical powers, do the pretty lights actually do anything? How do we use them?"

Trista favored him with a faint smile. "Yes, they do. I wish I could tell you how to use them, but the learning process is a necessary part of the Quest. The power awakened by today's ceremony will see that you learn to use your powers when you need them.

"Now, your first task is to find out as much as you can about Serenity and Endymion, for the more you know about them, the more you will know about yourselves, and that is the key to successfully completing the Quest."

Jayden stared at her. "You don't really believe there's anything on these people, do you? What do you expect us to do, check out the library stacks and do a few Google searches?"

"It wouldn't hurt," Trista replied, her eyes twinkling. "Before long, you should receive your first clue. It will dictate certain…pairings that would be most beneficial to solving the riddles. I would recommend that you follow the rules."

"What happens if we don't?" Mina asked curiously.

"Oh, nothing to be feared. You certainly won't be punished, if that's what you're asking. It just might take longer to come to the end of the Quest than otherwise."

Before they could ask any more questions, she held up her hand, and they heard a whoosh of air as the doors unsealed. "It's time for you all to go, now. I can only tell you so much."

Trista gave them her enigmatic smile again as she added, "Speaking of time, you'll find that you haven't missed anything while we've been together. For those of you who were informed that your classes were relocated, you may be pleased to know that they have actually been canceled for today. Oh, and…your timepieces should have started working again."

Lita glanced down at her watch to find that it did indeed read 3:01 pm.


	3. Chapter 3

_Three_

For possibly the first time in her life, Ami hesitated before entering the library. Things had been a mess after they had all agreed to the terms of the Quest. Once they had found that time seemed to be moving forward again, Trista had pulled another disappearing act. The ten of them remaining had had no choice but to exit the building, blinking owlishly as they were bathed in the transient fall sunlight.

_ Darien and Rei made brief goodbyes to the rest of the group, waiting until they were nearly out of earshot to begin arguing heatedly. Ami turned away, their gestures and expressions bringing back, as quarrelling couples always did, echoes of the years leading up to her parents' divorce. She glanced over at Jayden, who wore the half-determined, half-impatient look of someone who desperately wanted to be alone._

_ "I'll be in touch," he told them with a curt nod, walking off without a second glance._

_ As the rest of them exchanged phone numbers and e-mail addresses, Serena asked worriedly, "Do any of you know Darien or Rei? I don't even know what year they are."_

_ "I've seen Darien around before. I think we live in the same apartment building," Kenton spoke up. He, like Jayden, showed signs of wanting to be gone._

_ Zane, who wasn't bothering to copy down anyone's information, said breezily, "Guys, it's no big deal. That's what Facebook is for."_

_ Mina and Serena nodded in vehement agreement, but Kenton replied, "I'm not on Facebook."_

_ "What? How can you not use Facebook? _Everyone_'s on Facebook!" Zane squawked._

_ Although this question normally annoyed him to no end, Kent found himself feeling surprisingly even-tempered as he looked down at the blond. He replied in an amused tone, "I haven't really needed to so far."_

_ "I don't use Facebook either," Ami admitted shyly, "but we could use the student directory as well." _

_Zane turned his disbelieving gaze on her next, but he managed to keep his mouth shut, sensing that she wouldn't react as well to his commentary. _

_The guys seemed to be in no hurry to make definite plans, so Mina suggested, "Why don't we meet up at the library tomorrow to start on that research?" _

_It turned out that there wasn't a time that worked for everyone, so they settled for one that would maximize attendance. _

"_I'll get in touch with Rei and Darien if someone will pass the message along to Jayden," Mina said as she prepared to leave with Nevan. _

_After a not-so-gentle poke in the ribs, Zane sighed and said, "All right, I'll do it. But really, if you're going to tell those two, is it that much more trouble to find and message one more person?"_

_Mina rolled her eyes at his whining. "Stop whining. You were the one going on and on about Facebook, oh-tech-savvy one."_

_He sneered at her and walked off with a casual wave to everyone else, muttering about how one didn't need to be tech-savvy to use Facebook. Ami had been left to walk to Mariner Hall alone, since Serena, Lita, and Nevan headed back to Charon together and Kenton left without disclosing his plans. _

It would have been too unfriendly, not to mention going against the spirit of the Quest, to mention that she preferred to work alone. So Ami found herself standing on the steps, fifteen minutes before their meeting was due to start, and dreading it.

Mina had mass e-mailed everyone the night before, saying it would be just the girls meeting at the library until five, when Nevan and Jayden got out of class. Darien had work, Kenton class, and Zane an impossibly long engineering lab, preventing them from attending the meeting.

Ami sighed, squared her shoulders, and marched up the steps. 'There's nothing to be afraid of,' she told herself sternly. All of the girls seemed fairly nice, although at the moment, she found fiery-tempered Rei the most intimidating. At least Zane wouldn't be there today. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something about his brash confidence set her on edge more than Darien's intensity, Nevan's amiability, Jayden's coolness, and Kenton's reticence did.

She took the elevator to the fifth floor, where they had agreed to meet. Since she was the first one there, she took the opportunity to locate some of the books on her list. The night before, she had gone on the library website to record the call numbers for any sources on the history of Apollo University. For completeness, she'd added some books on mythology, although she had her doubts about how useful they would be if the myth of Selene and Endymion didn't correspond to Trista's version.

"Hi, Ami!" Serena sang out as she and Lita exited the elevator together.

Ami winced as some of the other students, bent over their desks with thick tomes and folios, sent seething glares their way, but Serena didn't seem to notice. Lita followed at a sedate pace and more quietly, although she still gave Ami a warm smile.

"Did you already get started?" Serena asked excitedly, eyeing the books piled in Ami's arms with some trepidation. "Do we seriously have to read all of those?"

"Oh, I was just… No, of course we don't have to read all of them, if you don't want to," Ami replied, getting flustered. "I looked them up last night and thought they might be useful."

The blonde tilted her head slightly, her blue eyes widening as she realized her words were being misinterpreted. "They do look useful, and I'm really glad we have an organized member of our group who's familiar with the library! I've never been on this floor before, and I'm terribly slow at reading. Anything but romance novels and manga put me to sleep."

Ami smiled at her kindness, but inwardly, she was wondering if they would have anything in common.

Rei arrived next, wearing an irritated expression and a sleek suit. Her long ebony hair was up in a sophisticated French twist, which Serena admired as she commented on her clothing.

"I just came from an interview," Rei explained.

"A job interview?" Ami asked, feeling her cheeks heat as the other three girls turned to look at her.

"For a summer internship," Rei answered. "I'm a sophomore, so I won't have to deal with that for another two years, thankfully."

Serena asked, "What are you majoring in?"

"East Asian Languages and Civilizations. And Accounting," Rei added with a slight grimace, her second major a clear afterthought. "What about you?"

The blonde blushed. "I don't know yet. I'm just a freshman, so I haven't declared, but I'm thinking about communications or linguistics."

Rei nodded, her eyes sliding to Lita next. The brunette said, "I'm a first year in the hotel school."

In her soft voice, Ami said, "I'm also a freshman, planning to major in biochemistry." She decided to keep the computer science minor to herself, not wanting to appear too nerdy in front of these girls. They all seemed to be more interested in humanities or business than in science.

To her surprise, Rei gave her a friendly smile. "You're pre-med, aren't you? Like Darien."

As Ami nodded, Serena asked curiously, "Are you guys going out?" When Rei gave a swift, unsmiling nod, she said, "He's so handsome! And he seemed so protective of you yesterday without being, you know, controlling."

Rei's expression would have been mocking if it hadn't been so rueful. "Well, he's always seemed like the perfect boyfriend. I guess that's Darien in a nutshell." She glanced down at her watch, clearly finished discussing her relationship, then remarked, "We should get started. Who else are we waiting for?"

"Mina," Ami answered promptly.

Lita shrugged and said, "Let's just get started. I'm sure she'll call if she can't find us."

As they seated themselves at an empty table, Serena asked Ami, "So how should we start?"

She paused in the middle of opening one of the history books. "I don't know," she said uncertainly, lowering her voice before she continued, "Trista mentioned the legend of Serenity and Endymion, and she said the university…has magic. I thought some history and mythology books would help, but I don't really know what we're looking for."

"It's as good a place as any to start," Rei agreed, reaching over for one of the mythology books, and Serena copied her.

Casting a wistful glance out the window, Lita wiggled in the uncomfortable wooden chair next to Ami and bravely took one of the heavy, densely-written histories. When Ami started taking detailed notes in the thick notebook she'd brought along, her pen flying across the page, the others dug out their own writing implements. Lita and Serena retrieved notebooks that they used for all their classes from their backpacks, and Rei had some loose-leaf sheets from her interview portfolio.

Fifteen minutes later, Serena and Lita got bored and started talking about some of their mutual acquaintances. Ami, who was used to either total silence or classical music when she studied, gritted her teeth. She glanced over at Rei, but the other girl just turned another page without looking up. She didn't join the conversation, but she didn't seem to be particularly bothered by it, either. So Ami went back to her work, doing her best to ignore the whispers and giggles.

Mina showed up twenty minutes late. She stepped out of the elevator with the guy who had walked her over. His clothes screamed Abercrombie & Fitch, and he smiled so widely that Ami swore she could have counted all the pearly whites in his mouth. Mina gave him a flirty wave, then walked over to the girls while he pressed the "down" button.

"Hi guys! I'm really sorry I'm late, but I brought doughnuts!" She smiled brightly as she plopped the big white box onto the table.

"Ooh, thanks! I love doughnuts!" Serena said, reaching over immediately for a vanilla frosted with rainbow sprinkles. "Mm, these are so yummy."

At Mina's urging, Rei took a chocolate frosted, and Lita a Boston cream. They were already biting in when Ami got up the courage to say, "Um, I don't think we're allowed to eat up here."

Mina waved this aside cheerily and took a big bite out of her doughnut. "Oh, it's okay. They won't notice!"

A minute later, one of the librarians walked up to them and said firmly, "If you girls want to eat that, I'm afraid you'll have to take it somewhere else. There's no food or drink allowed on this floor, but you can go down to the café in the basement."

Ami was mortified, but Mina just replied easily, "Oh, I'm sorry about that," and closed the box of doughnuts. She grabbed her purse again and said, "Why don't we head down, take a break, and chill first? We can get to know each other better."

The others agreed readily, but Ami cast an agonized glance at the stack of abandoned books. As they sat in the café, she took small bites out of her powdered jelly and listened to the other four chatter, talking only when she needed to. She learned that Mina, a junior, had switched her major from communications to sociology between freshman and sophomore year, and had finally settled on psychology. All of them except Rei were single, although Mina had a handful of guys she was seeing casually.

At last, Rei suggested that they head back up, and Ami spent the rest of the time ignoring the conversation going on around her and the lack of focus. She was relieved when Jayden and Nevan arrived, since she could recede further into the background. Jayden alternated between Edith Hamilton's _Mythology_, which he thumbed through with the look of one who was already familiar with it, and a biography of Apollo University's founders. Nevan kept up a running side conversation with Mina and told Lita and Serena what else he knew about the legend of Selene and Endymion.

* * *

Later that night, Mina walked through campus by herself, watching her breath steam in the chilly air as her boots crunched through piles of autumn leaves. Although it was before the witching hour, this area of campus was fairly deserted, and she was regretting declining Nevan's offer to walk her back. It hadn't made much sense, since her sorority house was a twenty-minute walk from the library and in the opposite direction of his dorm. Besides, she liked to be independent, wanting to distinguish herself from the clingy girls who seemed to need a guy to walk them everywhere. So Nevan had checked out a couple of books and headed back to Charon and his RA duties with Serena and Lita.

Glad to be distracted from her eerie surroundings, Mina smiled at the memory of the little freshman with the cap of black hair and big blue eyes. What was her name again? Annie? Ami? Yes, that was it. She had checked out a towering stack of books and looked positively delighted at the thought of reading all of them, something that baffled Mina. From what little they had pried out of her over coffee and doughnuts – and Ami didn't drink coffee, only water and sometimes tea – she still had a hideous amount of homework to get through. Even though Ami was only a freshman, she was already taking organic chemistry.

_"How's that going?" Rei asked encouragingly. "A couple of my friends are pre-med, and most of them hated it. They said it totally ruined their GPAs."_

_ "Oh, well," Ami looked slightly embarrassed to be at the center of attention, and she revised her answer of "It's very enjoyable" to "It's certainly challenging, but I like it much more than general chemistry."_

_ "Orgo's the one that has an eight-hour lab, right?" Mina asked, twirling her pen and admiring the way the light glittered on her gold nail polish._

_ Ami nodded, and the rest of them, bored with talk about science classes, started talking about the clubs they were in. _

Mina shivered as the wind blew harder and buttoned up her jacket.

"It's a cold night to be out walking alone," a whispery voice commented.

She jumped and let out a small shriek, looking around her frantically. But there was no one there, at least not that she could see. The only face in sight was that of the tarnished metal statue to her left. Mina frowned, wondering if it was the boys from Lambda playing tricks on her again.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" she called, one hand reaching into her purse to rest between her cell phone and a can of pepper spray.

No one answered as she glared at the shrubbery. Steeling herself, she stalked over to the clump of straggly bushes and batted the withered branches aside – no one there. She sighed and walked back to the path. Was her mind playing tricks on her? It was an awfully long sentence to imagine, and while her mother could be pretty flaky sometimes, Mina didn't think there was a history of mental illness in her family.

She peered up at the life-sized copper statue, which turned out to be a whimsical depiction of a fairy. She had long curls that reached past her knees, and Mina couldn't help but smile at the mischievous look on the fairy's face. There was no one here. No one but her and the fairy.

There was no such things as talking statues; it was all in her head, right? Mina laughed shakily and started to jog back to her sorority house. As she did so, Trista's words ran through her mind: _"The magic that pervades these grounds, once awoken, is very potent."_

Mina felt much better once she reached the house, and even paused in the kitchen to chat with Rita before heading up to her room. She went to sleep past two and dreamed of molten streams of silver and burning rivers of gold.

Above the humming of the streams and the hiss of heat coming off the rivers, she heard quiet weeping and a voice calling to her. But all the while, she couldn't look away from the strange and terrible beauty before her eyes. At the end of the dream, she plunged one hand into the silver and one hand into the gold and then brought them out, dripping with heart-shaped tears of precious metal. She felt no pain, for her hands were completely unmarked.

* * *

On Wednesday morning, just before noon, Rei sat in the corner coffee shop. She held a book open on the table before her, her finger marking the place in the novel where she had stopped reading. She glanced at her watch again with visible impatience and a hint of worry – Darien was never late. It was one of the many things she liked about him.

Another thing she liked was the way they handled their relationship. Rei liked to think of it as a mature, healthy relationship. They saw each other regularly, but not often. He was, as Serena had pointed out, protective without being annoyingly possessive. He didn't even seem to care that Rei's highly unsubtle hallmate, Chad Holdenford, had had a crush on her since their freshman year and continued to sigh after her longingly. Rather than being insulted at this lack of jealousy, Rei took it as a sign of Darien's confidence in her, himself, and their relationship.

They had been friends for most of her freshman year, and he had asked her out a month before school ended. She had returned to Japan for the summer while he had stayed on campus for lab research, continuing his work-study job from the school year. They had kept in touch mainly through e-mail and sporadic phone calls, but there had been no awkwardness between them when they were reunited at the beginning of the school year.

When they were together, they didn't feel the need to fill every spare moment with words. Rei had told Darien about her turbulent relationship with her politician father mostly to warn him that if he ever found out about their relationship, her father's first reaction would probably be to perform an extremely thorough background check on him. Darien spoke even more rarely about his family, but eventually, he had told her about how his parents had died in a car accident long ago. That was why he wanted to be a doctor, so he could help save other people's lives.

They met every Wednesday at the coffee shop and then got lunch together. Even so, Rei was beginning to wonder whether Darien had forgotten about it. She reached for her phone to check that he hadn't left her a voicemail or sent her a text message, but just then, the door swung open and he walked in.

He didn't see her immediately, so she had the chance to observe him. Darien didn't hesitate in the doorway, but walked all the way in. His black hair had been ruffled by the wind, but instead of looking messy, it was "casually sexy" – at least, that was what Rei's friend Giselle said. He was wearing the green blazer that she hated but he wouldn't get rid of. He'd never told her that it was the one thing of his father's that fit him.

Their eyes met, and as always, Rei found herself struck by the color of his eyes. Growing up in Japan, it had been rare for her to see blue eyes paired with black hair – naturally, that is. With the rising popularity of color contacts, it wasn't uncommon for her to see purple, gray, and green eyes instead of brown.

"I'm sorry I'm late."

"It's all right."

Rei packed her things with quick, efficient movements while Darien ordered a coffee. When he returned, steaming cup in hand, she stood up, her heavy fall of hair swinging against her back. He asked her to fill him in on what they had found so far over lunch.

"Not much," she admitted ruefully. "Ami typed up some great notes and sent them around, and Jayden added some of his as well. Did you get a copy?"

His expression turned slightly guilty. "Yes, I did, but I haven't looked at them yet."

She shrugged, taking a bite of her BLT melt. "I know you've been busy. Anyway, the basic story is this: Apollo University was founded in the 1870s by a pair of Greek immigrants who struck it rich and decided to endow a university. Their names were Artemis and Luna Georgiadis. Translated from the Latin, the university's motto is 'Often we meet by chance.'"*

"Strange. I never actually knew our motto," Darien confessed.

"Neither did I. Anyway, like several other smaller universities and colleges founded in the mid-nineteenth century, Apollo started out as an all women's college. It's been co-ed since the 1950s." She continued in that vein for awhile and ended with, "But I'm not sure how any of this relates to Serenity and Endymion!"

He replied, "I have no clue, but Trista suggested it, so I guess we have no choice but to follow her instructions. By the way, Rei, have you noticed anything…weird, lately?"

She looked at him closely. "What do you mean by 'weird?' Why, has something been happening?"

"Ah, no, nothing. Trista mentioned something about magical powers, but so far, I don't think any of us have shown any sign of spidey-sense or anything like that."

She smiled and said, "As cool as it would be to have some of Peter Parker's powers, I hope our mission will be less hazardous. Also, I think Lita's afraid of heights."

* * *

Kenton was in his apartment rereading de Tocqueville when someone knocked on the door. He frowned as he got to his feet – it had to be someone who lived in the building, since security would have called him about a visitor, but as far as he knew, he didn't have any close friends living in the same building.

He opened the door to find Darien standing there with a pot of red roses.

"I thought you looked familiar," Darien said, relieved that he hadn't disturbed some random stranger. Instead, he had disturbed an almost-random stranger. "Sorry to drop in on you like this. It won't take long; I promise."

Kent raised his eyebrows but stepped aside to let him in. "I hope those aren't for me," he said, nodding at the roses, "because I'm a self-confessed plant killer. My little sister tells me I have a black thumb."

"Uh, no, they're not," Darien said, holding the pot closer to him possessively.

Just then, Kent's cell phone rang, and he said to Darien, "Hold on a minute." To the person on the phone, he said first, "Kenton Jamison speaking," and then "Send them up."

"Sorry, do you have company coming?" Darien asked. "I can be out of here in a second."

He smiled wryly. "Not exactly."

Before he could explain, they heard loud voices coming from the hallway. "Since Kent lives off campus, I figured he might have a TV, and I asked, and he said yes! So I invited myself over to play some _Soulcaliber IV_. Boy, am I glad I ran into you guys."

"Let me guess – Zane?"

Kent opened the door again and stuck his head out into the hallway. "Somewhere along the way, he seems to have picked up Nevan and Jayden."

"Hey," Zane greeted them, breezing past Kent. He looked only mildly surprised to see Darien there as well.

Nevan followed him in, carrying two plastic grocery bags, and Jayden was last. He hesitated at the door, giving Kent an apologetic look. "Sorry about crashing your place. The kid kind of dragged us along, and he's hard to say 'no' to."

"Who are you calling a kid?" Zane demanded. "I'm only two years younger than you, dude!" He looked back at Darien and asked, "Aren't those things supposed to bloom in the summer? How did you get them to bloom so close to winter?"

Without waiting for a response, he continued, "By the way, I ran into Jay as he was leaving his Japanese history class, and we bumped into Rei. I didn't actually know she was your girlfriend until Jay told me. Anyway, I have to say, she's really hot. How do you get a girl like that to go out with you?"

As Nevan and Jayden settled themselves on the couch, Kent poked through the plastic bags Nevan had handed off to him. They contained soda and chips, so it looked like they weren't planning to eat him out of house and home, at least.

Darien, who had at first been taken aback, then slightly irritated, and finally amused, pretended to give the matter some thought. Finally, he replied blandly, "I didn't act like a caveman. Rei tells me that our campus is overpopulated by them."

"Funny, I hadn't noticed that," Zane said mock-thoughtfully.

Without heat, Kent remarked, "When you have a big mouth, it's harder to notice these things."

Nevan snickered while Jayden smiled for the first time.

Turning to Darien, Kent invited, "I believe we're in for some _Soulcaliber IV_ and who knows what else Zane has planned. Want to join us?"

"Sure. Sounds great."

"You'll have to put down the roses to hold the controller, though," Nevan pointed out.

Darien stopped smiling at that, looking more like the grim, distrustful figure he'd seemed like when they first met. "The thing is…have you guys noticed anything funny going on? Anything that could possibly be related to the Quest?"

When they all shook their heads, Darien sighed and sat down at the kitchen table, placing the pot in the center. He looked at all of them, his eyes passing from Zane's intrigued smirk, to Nevan's curious, open smile, to Jayden's look of wary interest. Finally, he glanced at Kent, whose expression was completely unreadable. For some reason, Darien felt oddly encouraged.

"Zane, you're right. These roses aren't supposed to be blooming in late autumn. I'm not sure, but I think they bloomed overnight."

"Are you sure it's not just a fluke? Some flowers bloom out of season in greenhouses," Jayden said reasonably.

"No, I haven't been keeping it in a greenhouse. It's hard to grow potted roses properly, so I've been keeping an eye on it – I don't think it even had buds yesterday. The other reason I think it might have something to do with the Quest is because these roses already bloomed in the summer. They were yellow then. Now they're red."

"Pretty incredible." Zane got up and walked over to the table, walking around it and eyeing the roses with more caution than he had a couple of minutes ago. "I'm going to take a wild guess and say you weren't cross-breeding these."

"Nope. Hey, watch out–" Darien tried to warn him, but he was too late.

The blond pulled back his hand with a yelp. "Man, these are some vicious thorns."

Wordlessly, Kent handed him a paper towel for his bleeding hand.

"Do these things normally have such large thorns?" Jayden inquired from the couch. He was still seated, but Nevan had come over to stand next to Kenton. Both of them kept a safe distance from the roses.

"I don't think so," Darien answered. "They were smaller in the summer and…not as sharp."

"Great," Zane muttered under his breath. "We've got an impossible Quest and some killer magic flowers. What's next?"

* * *

*This is actually a line from "Moonlight Densetsu," which of course I don't own.


	4. Chapter 4

_Four_

When she promised to do something, Lita liked to give it her all, whether it was turning the tide in a softball game or hand piping three dozen roses the night before a wedding while helping out at her foster mother's bakery. The problem was what to do when she was supposed to give two things everything she had. Schoolwork and the Quest were beginning to seem completely incompatible.

Recently, Ami had wondered out loud whether researching for the Quest was anything like developing a dissertation or at the very least, a senior thesis. Jayden had pulled his head out of a dusty book with a grunt and given her a very definitive – and grumpy – "no." She still wasn't sure whether he had been attempting to be reassuring or not.

With a sigh, Lita put her chin in her hands, gazing at her ivy plant in the windowsill. At this rate, she thought morosely, she would be on academic probation within the year. She missed the learning style in her unconventional high school, which was more individually-paced and where she had known, if not liked, all of her classmates.

Here, she had learned within the first month that one didn't ask questions in lecture – at least not when the lecture hall seated two hundred and not when your professor considered himself the nearest representative of a society with the motto "I am a Genius and Everyone Else is an Idiot (Except for Einstein, Who May Have Been Merely a Moron)." She was convinced that this society had two requirements: the first was to broadcast one's membership in it as often as possible, and the second was to act at all times as if a stick the length of the motto had been inserted up one's backside. On second thought, perhaps the two were one and the same.

Her roommate glanced over in concern as Lita flipped over on her back and heaved another sigh. "Is everything okay, Lita?"

"Yeah… I just didn't do so well on my economics midterm," she admitted.

"That's too bad. I heard a lot of people thought it was hard. But you have another midterm and a final, right?"

"I do, but the thing is… I spent a lot of time studying, but I still don't understand the material. I feel like even if I spent months studying, I wouldn't do well on the exams."

Lizzie nodded sympathetically. "Why don't you try going to office hours? Maybe they can go over your exam with you. My TA did, and he was really nice about it. Cute, too," she added with a wink.

Lita smiled back, feeling better already. She liked being proactive about things and having a plan of attack. "That's a good idea. Better than lying here sulking about it, anyway." She gathered up her things, headed over to the squat brick building, and rapped firmly on the closed door.

It was what she considered her second-to-last brave act of the afternoon – the last was managing to leave the building before she started crying. She turned off the campus's main artery as quickly as possible, trying to stem the flood of tears so people wouldn't stare. Overhead, the skies darkened and the ominous booms of thunder started accompanying her shaky footsteps, but she didn't notice. All she heard was the impatience in her TA's voice when he declared, "It's trivial," and refused to explain the problem to her.

When a forked branch of lightning reached down for her, ignoring the taller buildings, she couldn't see it with her tear-blurred eyes. All she saw was the derisive expression accompanying the words, "If you can't handle it, you should drop the class. You hotel school students shouldn't even be taking this course."

The harder she cried, the harder the raindrops fell, the louder the thunder roared, and the brighter the lightning flashed.

* * *

Mina shivered as another loud crash of thunder shook the house. 'Geez. I know we don't pay the university much rent, but you'd think they would at least try to keep us alive.'

Trying to counter the rapidly darkening sky, she pulled a sweatshirt on and moved the lamp closer. She managed to read two more lines before the lights flickered.

"Oh, no–" was as far as she got before she heard the warning beep and the house went dark. Surprisingly, it also became very noisy. She heard shrill complaints, doors slamming open, footsteps in the hallway, and exclamations of annoyance as people bumped into each other.

"What's going on?"

"A power outage. It must be the storm."

"Does anyone have a flashlight?"

"Ow! That was my foot!"

"How about the candles from the last speed dating event? Who has those?"

"Watch were you're going!"

"I can't help it; I can't see anything!"

Safely in her room, Mina pressed her face against the darkened window. It seemed like all the lights on their street and the next two blocks were out. She had grown up in a city and was used to living in urban environments. There was always enough ambient light that even if all the lights in her room were out, it was never completely dark. Being in a pitch-black area like this was unnerving to her.

Suddenly, a series of thuds, followed by a loud bang, silenced the commotion in the hallway – but only for a moment.

"What happened?"

"Did someone just fall down the stairs?"

"I don't know, I can't see anything!"

"Are you okay?"

Wild sobbing cut through the flurry of questions. Before she knew what was happening, Mina had her cell phone in one hand and a ball of golden light in the other. It felt pleasantly warm, but not hot. She blinked at it and closed her hand reflexively, which made it look as if her fist was being illuminated from within by a glowing ember.

'Okay, I have somehow become a human flashlight.' She allowed herself another two seconds of awe before following her usual course of "act now, ask questions later."

She kept her fist closed, since it looked less alarming that way, and opened the door. "All right everyone, calm down."

Mina wasn't sure if it was the light or her words that did it, but everyone in the hallway froze and stared at her. Even the crying paused.

"Did you find the flashlight?"

"Mina? Rachel fell on the stairs and hit her head on the way down. It's bleeding pretty badly; I think we should call for help," came a voice from downstairs.

She let out a breath. Thank goodness for Rita.

"How did you–?" a more perceptive person started asking.

"Never mind that. Call 911," she instructed, thrusting her cell phone at the questioner, and made her way to the stairs. "Everyone stay here; we don't want any more accidents."

When she got to the bottom, she saw Rita sitting on the floor and holding a kitchen towel against the girl's forehead.

As she sniffled, Mina sat on her other side and took her hand comfortingly. "It's going to be okay, Rach. The EMTs should be here soon."

"My ankle hurts, and my head – and why is it bleeding so much?"

She didn't really want to, but Mina made herself examine the wound more closely. Although it was bleeding profusely, it didn't look very deep.

"What _is_ that?" Rita whispered to her, staring at the light.

"Ah, it's kind of like hand warmers, only with light instead of heat," she whispered back, tightening her fingers so they wouldn't notice she wasn't actually holding anything. In a louder voice, she said, "You'll be fine. Don't worry. It's just because there are a lot of small blood vessels under the skin right here." At least, she thought that was what Ami had been mumbling about last week. "Right, Rita?"

"I don't know – I study geology, not biology. That's rocks, not humans!" Rita hissed.

"Anyway, we need you stay awake until the ambulance gets here, all right? So keep talking to us." That was from watching television, so Mina felt more confident in saying it.

"I hate thunderstorms."

She sighed. Well, it was something.

* * *

Nevan was not having a good day – no, make that a good week. It was the time of year when his freshmen were fretting about midterm results or at the peak of their relationship crises or both. He was completely out of ideas for his term paper since the only myth he could keep his mind on was that of Selene and Endymion, and he was heartily sick of thinking about it. To top it all off, it looked like they were in for the worst storm of the season, which meant he couldn't escape to the rooftop lounge to do his work.

Their library sessions had settled into a predictable, if rather unfortunate, routine. Kenton came regularly but contributed about a fiftieth of the words he read to the conversation. Without a firm sense of what he should be looking for, Zane quickly became bored and went off on random tangents. He spent a lot of time in the medieval history section nursing his disappointed hopes of knights in shining armor and fighting dragons.

Nevan had the most to talk about with Jayden, but whenever anyone talked about the Quest as if it were serious business, he was Not Happy. And began ranting about how it should be impossible and they were on a wild goose chase. Darien unusually showed up when Rei did, with a pained expression and his med school applications.

For reasons he couldn't figure out, the girls insisted on sticking together, even when it was clear that they weren't working well together. Serena daydreamed, Lita worried about her homework, and Mina texted constantly. Rei spent a good amount of time reading relevant material, and almost as much time arguing with Jayden about the Meiji Restoration, dining hall food, cars, and well, everything, really. Although Nevan had to admit that he had enjoyed the cars conversation. So had Darien and Kent.

Ami spoke even less than Kent and appeared to be going through roughly twice the number of books as the rest of them, but without much success to show for it. He suspected, however, that by this point, she could recite the entire known life history of Luna and Artemis and all nine versions of the Selene and Endymion myth they had come across.

Squeaking footsteps in the hallway made him stick his head out the door. Before he could call out a greeting, Lita rushed by and disappeared into her room. He frowned – she looked more upset than getting caught in the rain warranted. Should he ask her if anything was wrong?

The sound of yet more footsteps caught his attention. He reached out just in time to stop Serena from tripping and falling flat on her face.

"Oops, thanks Nevan! Sorry, the floor's so slippery!" she exclaimed, smiling despite her near-accident.

He smiled wryly, having seen her face plant on dry, level ground more than once. "Yeah, you've got to be careful; people have been tracking in water all night from the storm."

They chatted for a few more minutes before Serena bid him a cheerful goodnight and walked over to knock on Lita and Lizzie's door.

'I hope Serena can cheer Lita up. Yeah, Serena can cheer anyone up. But I wonder what's wrong?' he thought to himself as he closed the door and sat down at his desk.

'She's upset because of her douche of a TA,' an unfamiliar female voice said.

Nevan jumped, nearly upsetting a mug of coffee all over his keyboard. He looked around quickly, but the room was empty. Cautiously, he opened his door, but found that the hallway was deserted. Same for the sidewalk below his window. Shrugging, he sat back down and turned up his music. Maybe it was someone from next door; the sentence, as well as being the answer to his question, could have been part of any normal, completely unrelated conversation taking place in the dorms.

'Ooh, I love this song,' said the voice again.

He muted the sound and listened closely for any movement coming from the rooms to his right and left. Nothing. He rubbed his ears vigorously.

'Stop freaking him out, Bellatrix.' This time the voice was male.

'"Bellatrix?"' he winced. Was he now imagining Harry Potter characters? Was he experiencing an episode of schizophrenia or psychosis? He really wished Mina hadn't made him take that abnormal psychology class with her last year.

'I can't help it, Rig. It's just been so long since we had anyone else to talk to.' The first speaker was back.

A new male spoke up. 'Hey, guess what, guys? The CEO of Sinclair Enterprises is resigning. I bet the company's stock will drop tomorrow!"

'Bee, shut up, no one else is interested in that crap,' the one he thought was called Rig said.

Nevan groaned and shut the lid of his laptop. It was overwork. That was it. He just needed a good night's sleep, and nothing like this would ever happen again. Inserting his earplugs, he turned out the lights, got into bed, and pulled the pillow tightly over his head for extra insurance. He wanted to solve the Quest – really, he did. But why did he have to go insane for it to happen?

* * *

The next morning, Nevan cautiously removed his earplugs. He had never been so relieved to hear nothing in his life – well, except that one time in high school that he'd invited Emma Nelson over and thought his parents had come home early.

Despite his inclination to write off last night's strange events as a result of too much caffeine combined with sleep deprivation, his mood was dark during class. He was jumpy and grouchy because he had spent half the night lying awake, expecting to hear more voices, and having to join the group at the library did not improve his mood.

"Do you know what happened at Mina's sorority house last night?"

He blinked at Rei. "No idea. Why? Is she all right?"

He wondered if he should tell Mina about last night. On the off chance that he wasn't imagining things, she was one of the most accepting people he knew. She could probably also recommend a good psychiatrist.

"She sent a text saying she wouldn't be able to make it today because there was an emergency last night," she explained.

Kenton lowered his newspaper briefly. "We thought you might know what happened since you seem close – and because you're part of Greek life, of course."

He shook his head. "I didn't hear anything, but I've been in class all day."

Kent nodded and redeployed his newspaper barrier.

"Hey, Kent, can I see that for a moment?" Nevan asked suddenly, noticing that Kenton was reading the _Wall Street Journal_.

Raising his eyebrows, Kent handed it over. In a rare effusive moment, he offered, "If you like, I also have the _Financial Times_. And _The_ _Economist_."

"Oh, no – I'm good, thanks." Nevan's heart dropped into his stomach when he saw the headline: "SINCLAIR ENTERPRISE STOCK DROP AS CEO RESIGNS AMID EMBEZZLEMENT SCANDAL."

Maybe… maybe the rumors of the scandal had been going on for some time. He had probably seen the previous articles, never mind that he never read these sections of the newspaper, and they had worked their way into his subconscious somehow. Or maybe someone was playing a dirty trick on him and had hidden a tape recorder in his room. He wouldn't put it past his frat brothers, who loved pranks.

He glanced over at Zane, who was typing with one hand, texting with the other, and frowning down at an open book. "Z, you're good with electronics, aren't you?"

"Mm…I'm okay. My roommate Melvin is better though," he admitted. Then he narrowed his eyes. "RAM, processor, or hard drive, and have you tried restarting your computer?"

"Uh, it's not a computer problem…"

"Oh good. I really hate doing tech support."

Nevan asked, "So do you have time to take a look at something for me? Maybe right after we're done here?"

The blond considered. "Will there be food?"

Ami looked up from her notes. "You mean you won't go unless there's food?" she asked in a shocked voice.

Zane grinned. "Sure I would. I mean, I would go no matter what, but I like to know these things ahead of time. Do you want to come, too?"

"Oh – well, I wish I could, but I have a pre-med society meeting tonight. Uh, the real kind," she said, looking flustered.

"Shut down," Nevan mouthed when Ami looked away again. He was secretly relieved – not because he didn't like Ami, but because he didn't want to explain to two people that he was delusional.

Zane showed him the finger behind his laptop screen.

* * *

Darien stopped short when he entered the yard behind the orphanage. He knew that they had a shortage of young, male volunteers who liked playing sports with the boys, so he was surprised to see that the Saturday soccer game had started without him. He was even more surprised when he spotted the small figure with long, flying ponytails standing by the goal posts. The ball came flying towards her; when he saw her trip over a clump of dirt and land on the ball, preventing it from going through, he smiled.

"Nice save, Meatball Head," he called out.

"Darien? What are you doing here?"

When the kids swarmed him happily, he clapped a few shoulders here and there and slapped some hands. "I'm a volunteer; I've been coming for three years. But I've never seen you here before."

Serena smiled. "Oh, normally I come every first week of the month, but I went home for my mom's birthday last week."

"Serena's cool," Tom piped up, grinning. Darien could see the gap where the tooth he'd been trying to lose for the past week had finally fallen out. "She doesn't mind getting dirty like the other girls."

He could see the proof of that: there was mud streaked liberally on her oversized Apollo sweatshirt and grass stains on her jeans.

"Want to play?" she asked him.

"Yeah, Darien! You be striker on our team; Jamie got a stomachache and went inside to whine about it to Ms. Cassidy."

Later, on the long walk back to campus from Diana's House, they stopped for coffee. "I have to say, I was surprised to see you out there."

She tilted her head questioningly. "Four summers of soccer camp, buddy. I always played goalie."

"I mean… you're good with kids. Boys."

"I have a younger brother and a lot of baby cousins," Serena explained, sipping her hot chocolate.

"Some of the girls don't like to play with them because they find the kids scary. Especially the older boys."

"Here? Most of them are great. Well, I see why Scott has 'attitude problems,' but I might too if I experienced what he went through…"

"No, not just here. At some other orphanages, too." At her confused look, Darien elaborated, "I grew up in an orphanage. My parents died in a car accident when I was younger."

Her eyes grew wide, and she set down her cup. He was surprised to see how sad she looked for him. "I'm sorry, Darien. I didn't know that."

"I don't think any of the others do, except Rei." He smiled. "She's very discreet. But I don't mind."

"Maybe she thinks talking about it would make you sad," Serena pointed out quietly.

"Yes, I'm sure she thinks that too. In general, we don't talk about our childhoods very much." When they got up to leave, he asked, "So do you live close to school, then?"

"About a forty-minute drive. It's nice; I go home maybe once a month to see my family. My brother Sammy's still in high school, and if he doesn't have an away game, I get to spend some time with him."

"That's great. And you've lived here all your life?"

"I think my family's always been in this area."

On the walk home, she smiled so brightly that Darien didn't mind the bleak November sunshine and the chilly wind as much as he usually did.

* * *

In the empty auditorium where her orgo lecture would start in another fifteen minutes, Ami stared at the blank projector screen glumly. She wasn't sighing because it was 8 am on a Monday morning; she was sighing because she wasn't at the library. And why wasn't she at the library, where she had been spending every free minute for past few weeks?

Because they had been through all of the mythology books in the library – well, all the ones they could read. They had pooled their assorted knowledge of languages to cover the ones that weren't written in English. Rei could read Japanese, of course, and Darien and Zane were passably fluent in Spanish, the former more so than the latter. Due to his classical studies major, Nevan's Latin was excellent, and he had a fairly good grasp of Greek. Lately he had seemed a bit out of it, though.

Mina's French was a relic from high school, but she was fumbling her way through with a French-English dictionary and copious use of Google translate. Unfortunately, the state of Serena's Italian was not to be mentioned, and Lita's entire vocabulary seemed to consist of cooking-related nouns and verbs. Ami had also studied French in high school and was currently studying Spanish, which she had been told would be an asset in a medical career.

Kenton had taken German in high school and was currently studying Mandarin. The former came in handy when they made him read the original _Kinder- und Hausmärchen_ – Grimm's fairy tales. The latter, he told them with a shrug, was useful in business. But many of the words used in the mythology were unfamiliar to him, not being part of standard business Mandarin.

Between the ten of them, Ami figured, they were really only missing the Nordic, Middle Eastern, and some of the Asian languages, which was disappointing but unavoidable. The problem was, they still hadn't been able to find the version of the tale of Selene and Endymion – _Serenity_ and Endymion – that Trista had recounted.

So here she was, early as usual, with nothing better to do than brood in an empty lecture hall. She continued to do so, even when the clock hit the five minute mark and students began trickling in lethargically.

The sound of a backpack being dumped unceremoniously on the floor beside her jolted her out of her reverie. Ami looked up in surprise as Zane dropped into the seat beside her. She had never seen him there before, and the semester was more than half over.

"Good morning."

"If you say so," Zane grunted, looking as if he'd just rolled out of bed and put on the cleanest shirt he could find – which, of course, he had. He slouched in his seat and crossed his arms, giving the projector screen a baleful stare. "Why do you sit so close to the front, anyway?"

To her shock and horror, Ami opened her mouth and what came out was: "If you don't like it, you're welcome to move."

Zane swiveled to regard her with more interest than he'd ever shown in anything on the blackboard. "You know, I think this is the first time I've ever seen you grumpy. Usually you're so polite, even when you're on the verge of exploding."

"I have not been on the verge of exploding," she said indignantly. In hindsight, she would blame everything on their lack of progress, Jason's unending, skull-pounding bass, and Zane's refusal to follow proper morning etiquette. It was the only explanation for why she hadn't just turned red and buried her face in her notebook.

"Yes, you have. I can tell, and I don't blame you. Mina's my cousin, and I love her, but I would never want to work with her on a class project. She's never really gotten into the whole research thing, and she's rotten at languages. Did she tell you about the time she came into my Spanish class and accidentally told the teacher she was pregnant instead of embarrassed?"

As he snickered, Ami smiled shyly and said, "Well, it's an understandable mistake. And she's not that terrible, really."

"I know. Mina has her own special way of communicating with people, and she does it much better than any of the rest of us – just not in foreign languages. Her talent is waiting for people to do the research and come to her, and then she deploys them like MacArthur. You should have seen her planning diagrams for my parents' wedding anniversary. Anyway, what do you think of Professor Hardwell?" he asked, jerking his head in the general direction of the lectern.

"He's an excellent researcher–"

"Come on, he's a dead bore," Zane cut in.

"– but his teaching is rather uninspired," Ami admitted.

Looking more cheerful now that he knew she agreed with him, Zane eyed her notes and asked, "Do you come and take notes _every_ lecture?"

"Of course. Don't you?" Belatedly, Ami realized her mistake. "Oh. That must be why I haven't seen you here before. Not even at the midterm."

"Oh, I showed up for the midterm. In fact, I sat right behind you so I could cheat off of you," he told her airily. He burst into laughter at her outraged look and said, "Just kidding. I sat in the back with Elena and Marie."

He turned around to point out a black-haired girl in a knit dress and tights and a blonde in a cashmere sweater who were sitting together near the back doors. "I sit with them when I come to class, but I usually don't bother since it's a total waste of time. I like to sleep in."

Before Ami had a chance to respond, the professor came puffing up to the front, and she turned to face the front properly. Zane spent the first half of class distracting her by scribbling comments on the edge of her paper speculating on what decade of music the professor preferred ("It has to be the sixties") and why the student two rows in front of them had the haircut he had ("Maybe his mother cut it in the dark with garden shears and her eyes closed"), and correcting one of the formulas on the screen a second before Ami herself realized the error. She attributed the delay to his distracting presence.

He appeared to fall asleep halfway through lecture. She tapped him tentatively on the shoulder with her pencil, and had to give up when even a firm shake couldn't rouse him. When the lights came on, Ami eyed him warily. "Zane? Wake up. Class is over," she said loudly.

He opened his eyes instantly, then stretched and yawned widely. "Oh, thanks."

"Why did you bother to come if you weren't going to listen?"

"I didn't come to listen," he said cheerfully, leading the way out of their aisle. "I came to find you." He pulled a battered slip of paper out of his pocket and handed it to her.

Ami took it carefully. "This isn't normal paper," she remarked.

"Yeah, I noticed. It looks ancient. Do you think it's vellum?"

"Mm, maybe papyrus," she said absentmindedly, staring at the flourishing script that read: _Mercury and Zoisite: University Archives_.

"I figured this was the work pairing that Trista mentioned."

"How did you get this?"

For the first time, Ami saw an uneasy expression cross his face. He drew her away from the crowd of students flooding out of the lecture hall, into a more deserted hallway. Quietly, he said, "It got…delivered at the crack of dawn. By an owl."

"By a what?"

He shoved his hands into his pockets and glanced over his shoulder. "I don't really know what happened. We must have left the window open last night or something. One minute I was sound asleep, and the next minute Melvin – my roommate – has fallen out of bed and is freaking out about something _flying_ in the room. It was a barn owl, I think. Melvin didn't find his glasses in time to take a look, since it just dropped this on my desk and flew out the window."

Ami bit her lip, glad that the message had come to him instead of her. She hoped all of these messages weren't going to be delivered via animals. Why couldn't plain old e-mail suffice? "We should tell the others about this. And I guess we should go to the archives?"

He nodded. "I'll let them know. I can't make it before the building closes today, but does three o'clock tomorrow work for you?"

It did, and they agreed to meet there. Before they parted ways, he said seriously, "Be careful, okay?"

She smiled at him. "You, too."

While he appeared to scoff at the notion that he needed any protection, Zane walked away, feeling pleased that he had finally gotten a smile out of her.

* * *

Kenton stopped in the hallway, glaring at the locked door. After ten minutes of turning out his pockets, he admitted defeat. It was three in the morning and the first time he had ever forgotten his keys. There was no one on-duty at the front desk between one and seven in the morning, and good luck finding a locksmith at this hour. He was tired, and while he was far from drunk, he had had more than his usual two beers that night.

Against his better judgment, he had gone with Darien and Jayden to a party being hosted by Mina's sorority, and they had run into Nevan and Zane there. Mina had brushed off his comment about Zane being underage by pointing out that he had a soda in his hand and that they knew what they were doing – her sorority had no intention of getting suspended for underage drinking, thank you very much. He had had no choice but to rejoin the others, feeling foolish, and watch her being hit on by a succession of guys throughout the night.

After Zane had gone back to his dorm for the night, the three of them had discovered exactly how bad Darien was at holding his alcohol. It wasn't that he got angry or was vomiting all over the place (which Kent observed happening to some of the other party attendees); he just seemed to completely lose the ability for sustaining independent movement.

None of them had wanted to retrieve Darien's keys from his pockets – by none, he meant himself and Jayden. It was a good thing that Nevan, who seemed completely unfazed at this turn of events – probably because he was used to dealing with such things – had been there to do it for them. After they had maneuvered Darien into his bed and left him snoring peacefully, Jayden and Nevan had called it a night and headed back to their respective dorms.

Kent sighed. Thanks to the Quest, he now had a number of people he could ask to take pity on him. But he didn't want to ask any of them. Darien was likely out cold for the night; he doubted even the ringing of his cell phone could wake him, and it looked like Darien's roommate Andrew would be spending the night with his girlfriend Rita. He could ask Nevan or Jayden if he could crash in their rooms for the night, but Charon and Miranda seemed so far away and he was someone who really liked creature comforts. Like sleeping in his own bed.

He glanced at his watch – it hadn't been that long since they had left. They probably hadn't gone too far. Nevan, being an RA, had a large single to himself and was probably the better bet. He was about to dial Nevan's number after one last, frustrated rattle of the doorknob when he noticed something odd: trickles of dull silvery liquid were running down the front of the door. Before his eyes, the entire doorknob – and with it, the locking mechanism – liquefied.

His jaw dropped as the door swung open. "I'm hallucinating. I must be. It must have been the spiked punch." They _had_ spiked the punch, but he hadn't drunk any after that.

Dazedly, he walked into the apartment, spotting his keys on the kitchen counter. He turned to face the door again, opening and closing it a few times. Kent stood there, wondering if he dared to block it with a chair, collapse into his bed, and deal with it tomorrow. It wasn't like crime was a huge problem in this building, anyway.

He sighed. Of course he couldn't do that. But how was he going to explain to anyone why his doorknob was suddenly missing, and why there was a puddle of molten metal in his doorway?

Kent received his second shock of the night when, under his despairing gaze, the puddle twisted, leapt into the air, and reshaped itself into the doorknob and lock again. Without much conscious thought from him, his hand reached out to test the doorknob. It felt solid beneath his touch, and the door clicked shut properly.

He rested his head against the cool wood and closed his eyes. "Well, Darien, I think I've one-upped your roses. And now I'm going to bed."

* * *

AN: I don't own Harry Potter, _The Wall Street Journal_, Grimm's fairy tales, or any other similar items. I've gone back to make very minor revisions to the first three chapters to fix grammatical errors and for consistency, but no major changes were made. Thanks for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

_Five_

Ten minutes before his alarm was set to go off, Jayden lay comfortably in bed, waiting for the first few notes of "Twist and Shout" to fill the air. Instead, he heard the beep indicating that he had a new message.

"Who texts people this early in the morning?" he grumbled, fumbling blindly for his phone. Not many people knew it, but Jayden had a habit of talking to himself out loud. His friends from summer camp had found it incredibly diverting, but it had driven his freshman year roommate up the wall. He was grateful that he had a single this year, albeit a very small one.

He opened one eye just enough to read the message – which was, of course, pointless. As his head dropped back onto the pillow, he didn't see the pale blue sparks coalescing around his left sneaker.

He did notice, twenty minutes later, when he reached for it and it shouted at him, "Your feet stink!"

Jayden snatched his hand back and stared at the waggling tongue in disbelief. "I have _got_ to ask Mina what was in that punch. It can't be legal."

"Sorry dude, but you're not hallucinating. Or dreaming," the shoe added when Jayden pinched himself.

"My feet don't stink," was all he could think of to say.

"Yeah, yeah," the sneaker conceded, "it's not like you've got athlete's foot or anything, but a shoe likes a wash sometimes, you know? That warm water massage, the pore-cleansing heat of the dryer, and then we get to smell good. It impresses the ladies."

"You're a shoe! You don't have a sense of smell! And what ladies are you meeting, anyway?" Jayden wondered, dizzily, if he had any female shoes. The thought had never occurred to him before.

"Don't take your anger out on me just because you haven't had a date in six months," the sneaker said smugly. "If you'd like to remedy that anytime soon, I'm partial to heels – the higher the better, and the coy little peep-toes are a bonus. Not the uggs, they're like women who don't shave. And none of those ballet flats; they're too prim. They have that don't-tread-on-me vibe, you know?"

Before it had gotten to the part about the ballet flats, Jayden had grabbed his wallet and keys and was now looking for the nearest pair of inanimate shoes he could find.

"Are you going out to meet chicks? I want to come."

The question was met with the slam of the door.

"Those shoes don't match!" the sneaker called after him snidely. When it was clear Jayden would not be returning, it muttered, "Stupid high-tops. I always knew they were suck ups."

* * *

"Why do I have to be here? Why did you make me bring the roses?" He was almost, but not quite, whining. Anyone would be after hauling a red rose bush with thorns like daggers across campus and getting stared at the whole time.

"Because this is all your fault," Kent replied.

"How is this my fault? I didn't want any part of this from the start," Darien reminded him.

"You can't hold your alcohol. If you'd been halfway sober, I could have crashed at your place instead of learning about my new home improvement skills," was his tormentor's somewhat illogical response.

"I think a sense of style is required for it to be called 'improvement,'" Darien shot back. He was tenderly – and cautiously – examining the roses' petals and stems for any sign of frostbite they might have acquired during their long walk across campus.

Kent's retort was forgotten when he noticed a familiar blond figure running towards them. "I think we have company," he observed.

The newcomer skidded to a halt. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Looking for Trista," Darien said glumly. "But we knocked and she's not answering."

"Hah! I knew she would be avoiding us," Jayden declared.

Just then, a student passed the three of them standing cluelessly in front of Trista's door. "Are you looking for Trista? I just saw her in the dining hall."

Her hopes that one or all of the good-looking guys would stop to flirt with her were dashed when they made for the dining hall with all due haste.

"Thanks!" Darien called back over his shoulder.

Kent noticed him peering at the roses again and said impatiently, "Stop babying the roses, Darien. The thorns on those things are so sharp they could probably survive Armageddon. Or at least a zombie takeover."

They cornered Trista by the cereal dispensers. "Good morning. It's rare that I have three such handsome gentlemen to share my breakfast with me," she said laughingly.

"We need to talk. In private."

"Oh? About what?" she asked, the corners of her mouth curving in that mysterious smile that was starting to get on Kent's nerves.

"You know. _The Quest_," Jayden hissed under his breath.

Trista consulted her watch. "I'm afraid you'll have to say whatever you need to now since I have to be somewhere right after breakfast. I'd be happy to meet with you at a later date, but it seems to be a rather urgent – and floral – matter," she said, her eyes flicking to Darien's roses in amusement.

They exchanged resigned glances and accompanied her to a table.

"So what seems to be the problem, gentlemen?"

Kent and Darien both started to speak, but Jayden cut them off. "Have your sneakers started talking to you?" he demanded. "No? Then my problem is more serious."

"Oh, my. Your sneakers, is it?" Trista asked serenely, spooning cereal into her mouth as the other two immediately looked down at Jayden's feet.

"Not these!" He gave them an exasperated look before turning back to Trista and demanding, "What is going on? How are talking sneakers in any way related to the Quest?"

"Hm." She tapped her fingernails, which were painted with plum polish, on the table. "Did they have any useful advice for you?"

"Not unless you consider 'do your laundry' and 'meet chicks' useful advice. How do I make it stop?"

"Say the magic word," Trista told him, as if it were obvious.

"What, like 'abracadabra'? 'Open sesame'?"

"No, of course not. I don't know what word Lord Jadeite used for such workings, but I assure you it wouldn't be any of those. He was _much_ more imaginative than that."

"Well, how do I figure out what word Lord Whatsit used?"

"Trial and error," she told him without sympathy. "You'll figure it out eventually, I'm sure."

As Jayden spluttered, imagining himself sitting before his loudmouthed sneaker and trying to read it the dictionary, she turned her gaze on Darien and Kent. "And what about you two?"

"I melted the lock off my door," Kent said bluntly.

She nodded sagely. "Ah, Lord Kunzite's ability to work metal. I remember he crafted a truly magnificent sword once, for the leader of Serenity's guard – but you won't be interested in that right now. Anyway, you must be finding that to be quite a useful skill."

"No – well, perhaps – but how do I control it?" he asked in frustration.

"I give you the same advice as I gave Jayden: a little experimentation never hurt anyone. Beyond recovery, of course. How about you, Darien?"

Wordlessly, he indicated the pot of roses on the table.

"Yes, they're very nice. I imagine they'll come in handy when you meet the hellhounds."

"When we meet the _what_?"

Trista got up to bus her tray; they trailed her like anxious ducklings. "You'll find out soon enough." She turned and gave them a reproving look. "Really, I did warn you that some unsettling things might happen. It will work better if you keep an open mind and try to figure things out amongst yourselves."

With a final, brisk nod, she left the dining hall.  
Kent thrust his hands into his jeans pockets, looking deeply unhappy. "Time to schedule a group meeting?" he asked.

The other two nodded in gloomy confirmation.

* * *

At three o'clock, Ami and Zane entered the Gothic building that housed the university archives and the history department.

He had been envisioning rows upon rows of cabinets full of dusty, unreadable files and was pleasantly surprised to find that the archives had recently been renovated. They consisted of several display cases, a suit of armor, and only two boxes of dusty old files.

While he lifted the visor and examined the lance, Ami walked over to the first of the display cases. When he joined her, he noticed that it was filled with black-and-white and color photographs of the university's alumni. His eyes skimmed over a photo of three effeminate men holding microphones who, according to the caption, had gone on to form a famous band. The label on a photo of the seven founders of the drama society informed him that they later became the stars of the Dead Moon Circus, whose performances rivaled those of Cirque du Soleil.

When he got to some of the more recent photos, he blurted out, "Hey, that's Haruka Tenoh, the racecar driver! And Michelle Kaioh. Wow, she was gorgeous even while she was still in school."

"You like her music?" Ami asked, startled to find that they had something in common.

"Yeah!" he answered enthusiastically. "I have all her CDs. I wish she would tour in the States."

She nodded in agreement, and they continued reading in amicable silence. With growing interest, Zane read about Alan and Ann Ginga, two students who had met at Apollo University, later married, and made major contributions to the Green Revolution.

Another group of students had started a radical political group during their undergraduate years – Zane's eyebrows rose when he read exactly how radical they had been. After graduating, the members went on to found Black Moon, Inc., which was now one of the world's most powerful multinational corporations. Its interests included everything from cosmetics to supermarkets, and one branch of its operations dominated the diamond market. It appeared to be one of the university's most generous donors.

Before he continued on to the last case, he whistled and said, "We've had some pretty famous alums. I never realized. Did you?"

"I came across some of them when I was deciding which schools to apply to," Ami admitted diffidently.

"You must have really done your research." Zane was impressed. He thought back to a year ago, when they had still been high school seniors. Mina had done a good job of selling the school to him, so he had applied to Apollo, three other schools that also had top engineering programs, a safety school, and considered himself done.

She kept her gaze lowered as she knelt on the ground by the file boxes. "I guess so. It was actually kind of fun – I thought it would be one of the most important decisions in my life, and my mother spent a lot of time going over things with me. She's an ER doctor and often has to be on call, so she doesn't usually spend much time at home."

"It's interesting that you also want to be a doctor," he remarked, leaning on the glass case and watching her sort through the box. "I mean, since you know firsthand about the terrible hours and downsides of the job."

She looked up now, brushing her bangs out of her eyes.

"I'm sorry, was that rude? Mina tells me I have the emotional intelligence of a brick."

To his surprise, she laughed. "No, it's fine. I admire my mother very much, and I really like medicine. It's the most direct way I can think of to help people. To tell the truth, I think that many doctors can have close to a normal work schedule, so that doesn't really worry me.

"When I was younger, my mother made a great effort to spend as much time at home as possible, even though it was very difficult for her to manage that once she and my father got divorced. But when I was older and started spending less time at home, so did she. She likes to feel needed, you see. And certainly many of her patients are in need of her expertise."

She paused, surprised that she was telling him so much. Something about the serious way he listened, without laughing at her even though he laughed at so many other things in life, was oddly soothing.

"Is it that way for you, too?"

Ami ducked her head again. "I think the key is to be wise, or maybe just luckier, in love."

The quiet descended again while she started on the second box and he watched the white lights of the room bring out rich blue tones in her dark hair. From what she had told him and the sadness of her expression, she had had a fairly lonely, somewhat painful childhood. The care she took with people made more sense to him now, and he found himself struck by the purity and persistence of her hope.

As he bent down to help, he asked, "Do you think we're supposed to contact some of the alumni?"

"Maybe… or maybe we were supposed to find this," Ami said. She pulled out a thin, cylindrical object wrapped in brown paper and tied with a cord, which was attached to a small green stone. There was a tiny symbol inked onto the paper.

"That looks like zoisite," Zane said, moving to her side. At her surprised look, he explained, "That first night after we met and started on the Quest, I looked up all those names. I wanted to know what this 'Lord Zoisite' was."

Ami nodded, carefully touching the symbol with her fingertip. "This is the symbol of Mercury."

He sprang up and held out his hand. "All right, let's go. Mission accomplished."

"Hm? Don't you want to open it?"

Quick as a flash, Zane pulled her to her feet, took the cylinder from her, and put it into her backpack. Just as he zipped it closed, she heard the archivist's footsteps in the hallway.

"Should we just take it with us?" she whispered nervously.

"Who else do you think it's meant for? Come on, let's get out of here." With a breezy wave at the archivist, he pulled her up the stairs and out of the building.

They were halfway across the quad when she realized she didn't know where they were headed. And that he was still holding her hand. "Where are we going?"

"To Mariner Hall," he said, as if he were surprised she didn't already know.

She snatched her hand away. "What? Why?"

"Well, it's your room or mine, and Mariner is a lot closer than Magellan. Those are the only places where we would be guaranteed privacy. You want to know what that thing is, don't you?"

It seemed perfectly logical when he put it that way. They walked as quickly as they could towards her dorm but had the misfortune to run into one of her hallmates along the way.

"Hi, Ami. How is it that you have two such good-looking guys after you?" Nicole asked in a false whisper, simpering at Zane.

Ami murmured something inaudible and unlocked her door hurriedly. After Zane stepped all the way into the room, she closed the door, hoping none of her hallmates would get any ideas.

"Two guys?" Zane asked.

"She must be talking about Greg," she replied, opening her backpack. "He's my lab partner."

"So he's good-looking, huh?"

"It's more that he's the only other person they've seen me with," Ami said matter-of-factly, focused on their find. "Here we go."

She took off the cord and green stone and handed them to Zane, who turned the stone over in his fingers meditatively, and carefully peeled off the brown paper. The cylinder turned out to be a small papyrus scroll, which read:

_Seekers of the Quest take heed _

_A crystal you must seek and find_

_Past the brewers of fine mead_

_Furlongs deep within the earth._

_Seekers of the Quest take note _

_Dangers wait to test your might_

_Not all you see you know by rote _

_They guard this precious treasure well. _

_Seekers of the Quest beware _

_Turn left to hear the hellhounds bay_

_Turn right to see the dragon's lair_

_One of them will test your faith._

_All ten of you must come together _

_All ten of you must come as one _

_To seek the treasure in my hold _

_And solve the Quest as was foretold._

* * *

Resolutely, Mina made her way back to the secluded courtyard with the fairy statue. It was ten o'clock at night, the same time she had passed through here the last time. She positioned herself directly in front of the statue, with her arms crossed. "Um, hi. I was here a couple nights ago, and, well…do you talk?"

No response. She took another look around, having checked once when she first arrived for other people, and drew on the memory of what it had been like to hold a ball of golden light in her hand. This time, it materialized as a chain of hearts, like the ones she had seen in her dream.

Moving as if it had a life of its own, the chain twined around the waist of the fairy and broke off, leaving the other end in Mina's hand. That end faded, while the circle of hearts around the fairy's waist gleamed brightly for a moment before turning to the same tarnished copper as the rest of the statue. It looked as if it had been carved there centuries ago, even though she knew it had not. Right before her eyes, she saw the fairy's wings start to quiver.

She jumped back, looking for something to grab onto that _wasn't_ the creepy statue, and collided with a tall figure.

"Ouch–"

"Sorry–"

"Mina?"

"Hi Nev," she said, glancing between Nevan and the statue, which no longer appeared to be moving. "What are you doing here?"

He wore the same half-sheepish, half-startled expression that she did. "I was just, uh… were you talking to someone? I thought I heard your voice before."

And some other voices. Like those of Bellatrix, Rig, and Bee again. Bee was still talking about the economic slump – it seemed like he and Kent would get along really well. Nevan grimaced. 'Do not encourage this. Do not converse with nonexistent people. Do not feed your delusions,' he reprimanded himself sternly.

"Oh, I thought I heard someone say something, but I must have imagined it."

"You mean, you hear voices that tell you about the future, too?"

Mina stared at him. "Well, not exactly. Just the one, and she didn't say anything about the future. You've been hearing things? And they tell you about the _future_?"

She told him about the statue and the light she had generated the night of the thunderstorm; he explained about the three speakers and reading about Sinclair Enterprises in the newspaper. "It only happens at night. At first I thought it was the freshmen next door, but they weren't even in their rooms at the time. Then I thought maybe one of the guys in my frat was playing a prank on me – you know, with a hidden speaker or something. But Zane and his roommate Melvin took a look with me, and we didn't find anything."

"Maybe you missed something?"

Nevan shook his head. "I doubt it. Zane's pretty good, but Melvin? I wouldn't be surprised if the tech branch of the CIA recruits him one day. He needs some help in the relationships department, though."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, he likes this girl named Molly, one of my freshmen. She's Serena's roommate, actually."

"Molly Baker? I know her! She's rushing my sorority."

"Right, I forgot about that. It looks she has a small crush on me – or something – because the minute he walked in, Melvin informed me that even though we were 'rivals in love,' he was going to help me out because that was what 'men of honor' did. And that although as an upperclassman, I have the advantage, he will persist. It was kind of strange, but funny. But anyway, about these voices…"

"I have no idea. It doesn't sound at all like the same thing that's happening to me, but who knows? I think we just have to wait and see." She patted his shoulder reassuringly. "But I think it's definitely part of the Quest, and you're _not_ going crazy."

While he walked with her back to her house, Mina said jokingly, "You know, it's not necessarily a bad thing. A talent like that could be very useful – you could make tons on the stock market."

He laughed. "I think you've confused me with Kent. That type of thing is more up his alley, not mine. Maybe you should mention it to him."

She rolled her eyes. "Right. I can just imagine his reaction now: 'Mina, that would be very irresponsible, not to mention _highly_ unethical. I can't believe you would suggest such a thing to me.' So on, and so forth."

He had to admit, her impression was pretty much spot-on. But… "I don't know. He did a little breaking and entering last night."

"He did what?"

Nevan shared the details with her, then continued his teasing. "Anyway, Kent might have a soft spot where you're concerned. He seemed pretty worried when you didn't show up the day after Rachel's fall, and then last night at the party…"

"What 'last night at the party?' We barely exchanged five words. Sorry Nev, I think you're confusing concern with annoyance at my absenteeism," she scoffed. But she was glad it was dark enough that he couldn't see her blushing.

Later that night, Nevan was back in his room, staring off into space and thinking about how to draft an e-mail to his advisor when he suddenly saw the word "Bellatrix." It was on a poster of the night sky, and his eyes had fallen on the constellation Orion. They traveled next to the names "Rigel" and "Betelgeuse."

"No way…"

* * *

Normally, he really enjoyed recitation, at least when the TA was a competent moderator and the material was interesting. It was a chance to discuss the week's reading assignments with a smaller group of students and compare his reactions and interpretations to theirs. Today, however, he couldn't wait for it to be over.

"In this context, it was crucial for the messages to be passed secretly because–" He stopped abruptly, appearing to lose his train of thought.

"Jayden? Did you want to finish that sentence?" the TA prompted him.

"What? Um, sorry, I forgot what I was saying." His blue eyes were wide and startled.

"That's okay. Just speak up if you remember what you were going to say. Cassandra? You had your hand raised before."

Rei narrowed her eyes as the girl to her left starting talking about nightingale floors. Jayden had been tense all during class, and his left eyelid was positively twitching now.

Twenty minutes later, his eyes still on the blackboard behind the TA, Jayden finally spoke up again. "And textiles in this period were particularly important to the economy…"

Again, his voice trailed off. The graduate student running the section looked at him with concern. "Jayden, are you feeling all right?"

"I'm fine," he said in a strained voice. "Sorry. I was going to say that goods like cotton and silk played a major role in revitalizing the feudal economy, and that it was evident from these scholars' writings that they recognized their importance."

Rei heard a soft thumping noise coming from underneath the table. She looked down and blinked when she saw someone's plastic water bottle moving across the floor towards her. Part of the label twisted away from the bottle, and it started to sing – loudly – the explicit version of a recently released rap song.

"Whose phone is that? I know we all forget these things, but can you please turn it off?" the TA asked as the students started laughing.

Rei snuck a look at Jayden, who looked like he wanted to die. She reached down discreetly and snagged the bottle, pressing the label firmly against the plastic. It struggled, but without any arms it was fighting a losing battle. "I'm so sorry. My phone has a faulty chip. I'll try to make sure it doesn't happen again," she said sweetly.

"That's all right. I have to say, that's a surprising choice of ringtone, Rei," the grad student commented.

Rei gave the girl her best version of her "Mind your own business look." She knew, from past experience, that it was highly effective.

After shooting her one grateful glance, Jayden didn't speak the rest of the class, only sank lower in his seat and watched the blackboard with such intensity that Rei wondered if the secrets of the world were being written on it. She couldn't see what was going on there from her seat, but she knew it probably wasn't good. Her fingers were numb from holding onto the water bottle by the time class ended.

When the students got up to file out, Jayden sprang up to erase the board, on which a series of curse words had been written and insulting caricatures of the class had been drawn. In the meantime, Rei stuffed the water bottle into her bag. The faint strains of "Puff, the Magic Dragon" drifted out.

When the TA shot her a confused look, Rei flushed and said, "I think someone changed my ringtone." It was a common enough joke among her dorm mates. Chad in particular seemed to find it devastatingly funny and was always trying (and failing) to steal her phone when she wasn't looking.

She breathed a sigh of relief when the girl left and it was just the two of them left in the room.

"Thanks for covering for me," Jayden said, trying to catch the piece of chalk. It had stopped writing things on the board but was now doing a very convincing imitation of a grasshopper.

"Not a problem. What's going on?" Rei erased the last few words from the board as Jayden finally grabbed the chalk.

"I seem to be having this problem with supposedly inanimate objects today," he began ruefully, and told her about the sneaker.

"You mean there are more of these around?" she asked, horrified.

"Oh, no. Just the two – well, three – things, I guess. I hope."

Rei eyed him skeptically. "We have to take them with us, before someone notices. Thank goodness you didn't animate something as big as the desk or the chairs."

* * *

Kenton looked up in surprise when someone set a fragrant, steaming paper cup on the table before him.

"Hey," Mina greeted him. She was holding another cup and a small manila envelope.

He regarded her and the drink she had given him with equal levels of wariness. "Hello." She looked, he noticed, very tired.

"It's just tea," she told him, taking a reassuring sip of her own cup.

He lifted it cautiously to his lips. To his surprise, it was very good. She must not have gotten it from any of the places he was familiar with, since they were all abysmal at brewing tea. "Thank you."

She beamed, then took five packets of sugar from her pocket and proceeded to empty them into her cup.

"What, no sugar for me?" he asked, amused.

Mina paused in the middle of ripping open the third packet. "You take your tea with sugar? You seemed like the type of person who drinks their tea plain and boring, no milk or sugar, and their coffee blacker than shoe polish. But I added some lemon to yours."

He smiled and took one of the sugar packets from her. "I like both sugar and lemon in my tea, but you guessed right about the coffee. How did you know where to find me?"

"Darien says you come to work here every Thursday from two to five. My class was nearby, so I thought it was easier to meet in person than call." She handed him the envelope. "This came in the mail today."

The address of her sorority house was written on the front, and it had been opened already. Kenton blinked as he drew out what appeared to be a silver metal plate, hammered so thin that it wasn't much thicker than the paper rod Mina was using to stir her tea. Etched into the surface were the words: _Venus and Kunzite, University Museum, 5 pm._ "Well. That's very specific."

"Zane and Ami got a direction too, but not a time. I wonder why ours is different?"

"Perhaps because the matter is time sensitive. I really don't like taking orders," he murmured, taking a closer look at the plate.

She looked at him curiously. "Who else gives you orders?"

He blinked, as if suddenly realizing who he was talking to, and his expression returned to his normal, impassive one. "No one. I guess we're headed to the museum, then?"

* * *

AN: The riddle is meant to be four quatrains, but I couldn't format it that way here. Poetry has never been my strong suit, so apologies to any poetry-lovers. There should only be one more instance where I inflict my verse upon you in this fic (at least I really hope that's the case). Next time: Mina and Kent's epic night at the museum, more sneaker fun with Jayden, and self-propelling liquids. As always, thanks for reading and reviewing; it is much appreciated!


	6. Chapter 6

_Six_

"The museum closes at five thirty," Mina pointed out as they passed through the tall iron gates. "Do you think we'll have enough time?"

"I don't think we have a choice. Our instructions were pretty specific."

They showed the guard their student ID cards and entered a long, tiled corridor: ahead of them were Etruscan artifacts, to the left was the Egypt exhibit, and to the right was a room filled with Chinese ceramics.

"Which way?" Mina asked, turning to look at her companion. "Hey…your pocket is glowing!"

He looked down and saw that it did seem to be emitting a bright silvery light. When they had left the café, he had put the metal plate into his pocket without really thinking about it. Now he retrieved it, and the glow faded. The front still held the same message, but the back now read: _Mesopotamia collection_.

Accordingly, they made their way to a small room in the center of the museum. Mina took a moment to admire the stylized golden lions prowling along a blue-bricked replica of the Ishtar Gate. "What do you think we're looking for?"

"Probably something related to Serenity and Endymion – a moon, or a sheep, or a telescope? Something along those lines?"

He took the left side of the room, she the right. She examined all the contents of the display cases closely, but nothing jumped out at her. Despite its age, the museum appeared to have an excellent heating system; Mina was starting to perspire in her forest green sweater. When she finished her circuit, she walked over to the little fountain babbling at the back of the room and dipped her fingers in the cool spray. She glanced over and saw that Kent was still examining an assortment of coins, trying to decide whether a blob was a sun, moon, shield, or horse. Turning her attention back to the fountain, Mina noticed a deep, oval-shaped groove in the wall directly above. To its left was a circle with two lines going through it, dividing it into quarters, and to its right was a crescent moon.

"Kent, come over here," she called.

"What is it?"

She pointed at the carvings. "Doesn't it look like the plate might fit here?"

He inspected it closely and nodded. Mina looked at him, seeing her excitement reflected in his eyes. She was sure this was it. They were so close.

Before they could do anything, however, the loudspeaker broadcasted a message that the museum would be closing in five minutes and all visitors should leave the premises.

"Someone will probably come by to check this room."

"There," she said, pointing to a well-concealed closet, the door painted tan to blend in with the landscape painted on the wall. She ran over and jiggled the doorknob, finding that it was locked.

"Here, let me," Kent said. This time there was no melting metal, only the satisfying click of the simple lock opening. He opened the door to the closet, which was empty except for two mops, a small box of cleaning supplies, and a bucket. "Trista was right. This is helpful."

"Hurry!" Mina urged, hearing footsteps approaching the room. She darted in after him and pulled the door shut.

They stood together in the dark, wondering how long they would have to wait and trying not to breathe too loudly. Kent was somewhat disconcerted to find out that the closet was smaller than it had looked at first glance. He was squeezing himself as far back as he could, with the mops poking his shoulder, and Mina was still pressed tightly against the door. He closed his eyes, trying to ignore the fact that there was very little space between them. It only intensified the citrus scent of her shampoo and the sensation of the silken strands of her hair brushing softly across his face.

Mina wondered whether she should try her light trick but worried that someone might see the light shining underneath the door. She also had her doubts about whether her concentration was up to it. Behind her, Kent smelled of peppermint and stone, and the shallower the breaths she tried to take, the more strongly the scent seemed to fill her nose.

She shifted slightly, trying to move farther away from him, but it only brought them into closer contact. It was almost handy, she thought, that the person checking the room walked by the door just then. It was the perfect excuse for why her heart was beating so fast.

An eternity passed between the time the sound of the footsteps died down and he dared to lean down and put his lips beside her ear. "Open the door a crack."

She shivered at the sensation of his breath against her skin and eased the door open with shaky fingers. The room was empty, the lights dimmed. She checked her watch, seeing that it was now 5:40 pm.

They stepped out, and Kent strode over to the fountain. "Let's hurry in case they do another check. Keep a lookout for me, will you?"

She positioned herself so she was facing the door and listened for approaching footsteps while he fit the plate carefully into the notch. After a suspenseful pause and a loud crunching noise, the sound of moving stone filled the room. She turned back just in time to see the fountain disappearing into the wall as a dark passageway was revealed.

"This is so Indiana Jones," Mina breathed. The memory of some of Indy's more gruesome exploits made shiver again, and this time, the feeling was not at all pleasurable.

"Are you okay with going in?" he asked her.

She nodded firmly. "Yes. Let's hurry in case someone heard that."

The ceiling of the passage was just high enough for Kent to fit inside, and he had to walk with his shoulders slightly hunched. Once they were inside, the wall slid closed behind them and something cool dropped into her hand. She bit her lip hard to keep from screaming, thankful that it didn't move or feel like an insect. Kent stood still beside her, and she saw, once she summoned the golden light to her other hand, that he also looked nervous.

"Nice trick," he said, looking at the light and then at their surroundings. "I hope we're going to be able to get out of here."

A small tunnel of black stone, veined with some pink mineral that sparkled in her light, stretched before them as far as he could see – which wasn't much. The air was cool and damp, and they could hear the sound of water dripping somewhere.

Mina looked down at the object she was holding, relieved to find that it was only the metal plate.

When she held it up to show him, his eyes widened. "Impressive."  
"Yeah…well, I guess there's only one way to go," she said in a falsely cheerful tone, glancing at the featureless wall at their backs. She really wished she hadn't read Ami's e-mail with the sinister poem and the mentions of hellhounds and dragons right before this.

"Let me go first."

"But I have the light," she pointed out.

He frowned. The cramped dimensions of the passage rendered it impossible for them to walk side-by-side. "I can see even if you're behind me," he said unconvincingly, casting a suspicious eye over the shadowy depths before them.

"Right," Mina said dryly. She took the lead, and Kent followed her so closely that he almost stepped on her heel a couple times before he adjusted to her pace. As they made their way cautiously through the passage, the air seemed to grow heavier and colder. Mina's light also seemed to be becoming less effective – the further they walked, the darker it seemed, and the space it illuminated shrank. The thought of something, anything coming after them in this tight little space where she could barely see a foot in front of her was terrifying.

"Of course there wouldn't be anything dangerous on the school grounds," she said, starting out confidently and ending in a whisper.

"Of course not," Kent agreed. Making more of an effort, he added, "You know how paranoid universities are about being sued these days."

She flinched as something black and winged detached from the ceiling just ahead and flapped past them.

"Just a bat, I think," Kent began before something small ran over his foot. "What the hell was that?"

"Probably a mouse." She reached back with her free hand, and his fingers closed tightly over hers. "Tell me about yourself."

"What do you want to know?"

"Anything. What you like. What your favorite ice cream flavor is."

Obligingly, he said, "I like fast, well-designed cars, nearly all of the Enlightenment thinkers, and couscous. I'm a strawberry guy."

She laughed shakily. "Tell me about your family and where you're from."

"Watch your step," he warned as they came to a set of steep risers slick with moisture and moss.

It made holding hands considerably more difficult, but at least they were going upwards instead of downwards. She hoped there wouldn't be anything waiting for them at the top of the steps, and tried to concentrate only on placing each foot solidly on the next step.

His neck was aching from alternating between looking behind them and trying to look past Mina in hopes of catching a glimpse of what lay ahead. "My parents are diplomats. Right now they're based in the US embassy in Lima. I was born in the US, but I spent my childhood in so many countries that I don't really know where to say I'm from. The place I stayed the longest was probably Morocco."

He really wanted to stop talking so he could listen to see if something was coming after them, but he could tell his voice was having a minimally calming effect on her. He also, somewhat fatalistically, admitted that even advance warning of any danger they faced was pretty much moot given their lack of anything remotely resembling a weapon. "Eventually I went to an international boarding school for high school, then came back to the States for college. My younger sister is attending that same high school right now. I hope she'll come here once she finishes."

She managed a smile. "It's nice that you're close."

At the top of the stairs, she saw that they had reached a dead end. There was a filigreed metal frame – a box, really – mounted on the stone of the wall, and inside it rested a thin volume.

"I guess this is what we came for," she whispered. She listened closely for the sound of something coming up the stairs. After all, she wasn't an idiot. It was just when you got close to the end, when you thought you were almost out, that the bad things happened.

Kent reached carefully for the book. The silver leaves and flowers parted smoothly for him and stayed that way after he cautiously lifted down the book. It was bound with a faded gray ribbon looped around a small pink stone.

"There's another groove there, inside the frame," Mina pointed out. It was visible now that he had taken the book down. She placed the plate in place, and with a grinding sound, the wall slid aside to reveal a glimpse of pavement and trees.

They emerged into the cool night air from the side of the museum. The wall slid back into place behind them, and they ran around the corner to the front of the building. She thought she had never been so happy to see the familiar sights of students, cars, and the electric yellow light of the street lamps. Before she could stop herself, she started laughing and crying all at once. To her surprise, Kent patted her shoulder awkwardly. "It's all right. We made it out. Everything's okay."

She drew back after a moment and brushed her sleeve across her eyes. "Sorry about that. Hysterical reaction. Do you have the book?"

He showed it to her. "Right here."

"Good. Great. Let's look at it later, all right? Maybe during the daytime."

"That sounds like an excellent plan to me."

Her laugh sounded almost normal again.

"Come on. I'll walk you home," he offered, putting the book into his backpack.

She walked beside him without argument. The thought of a well-lit house full of other people who had nothing whatsoever to do with the Quest seemed very, very good. She thought she might ask Rita if she could crash on her floor for the night.

* * *

It was a difficult decision: Ami vacillated between taking a seat at the empty desk by the window or approaching the table where a girl with glossy brown curls was already seated. Maybe she was meeting someone. Or maybe there was a reason she was here by herself, and she wouldn't want company. And if that wasn't the case, maybe Ami would say something that brought out the stiff, fake smiles or bored looks she was used to receiving.

She tightened her grip on her bag and walked over before she lost her nerve. "Hi, Lita," she greeted softly.

The brunette looked up with a welcoming smile. "Hey, Ami! I wasn't expecting to see you until tonight. Do you want to sit?" she asked, moving her backpack off the other seat before Ami had a chance to answer.

She smiled back and sat down. "Thanks. What are you working on?"

"Oh, just a problem set." She made a face, then asked, "What about you?"

Ami arranged her laptop and some books neatly on her side of the table as she explained, "I'm trying to figure out that riddle Zane and I found. I was hoping some books that mention the older buildings on campus might help."

She had typed up and sent a copy of the lines written on the scroll to everyone. They had already been planning to meet at Kent's place on Friday to discuss the strange powers some of them had developed, so Mina had added the riddle to the meeting agenda and wrote that everyone should try to take a quick look beforehand if time permitted.

"Oh, yeah. It's a little creepy, isn't it? And it doesn't make much sense. Serena and I tried to brainstorm about it last night, but we couldn't come up with anything. We ended up watching _Casino Royale_ instead. Hey, you should come next time – every Thursday night, we have movie night in Serena and Molly's room. It's usually the three of us and my roommate, Lizzie, and whoever else wants to come. It's a lot of fun, and we all put our movie choices into a hat every week and pull one out, so there's a lot of variety." She added, "Next week we're going to see _Chocolat_. That was my pick!"

She smiled shyly. "I'd really like to come. I haven't seen either of those movies."

Immediately, Lita pulled out a list and handed to her. "Great! Just add what movie you want to see to the list. We meet at eight o'clock."

Ami read over the previous entries, each in a different person's handwriting. After a pause, she carefully penned in _A Beautiful Mind_ at the bottom under _Love Actually_. She handed the list back to Lita, and then they each turned back to the tasks at hand.

She was trying to figure out whether there had ever been a distillery, brewery, or anything remotely related to the production of mead on the premises. She hadn't found any reference to such a thing so far, but she was carefully noting down what she had already checked when Lita let out a frustrated sigh.

"Is everything all right?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry. It's just… I can't figure out how to do this problem, and it's really bugging me."

"What is it on?" Ami asked curiously.

"Economics, but it's mostly the math that's tripping me up." Lita tapped her pencil on the table. "I actually liked algebra in high school, but the calculus is tricky."

"Do you mind if I take a look?"

"Please, be my guest." Lita pushed over her notebook and the battered sheet that had held the problems. "I'm on question three."

After a few minutes, Ami showed her the paper and said, "I think in this step, the derivative of this term should actually be x-squared plus 6x minus 16. This part will cancel out so you can set these terms equal to zero, and then…"

Her face brightened as the problem became infinitely simpler. "Oh, I see how it goes now! Thanks, Ami!"

"It's always harder to see where things have gone when wrong it's your own work," she said sympathetically.

Lita nodded glumly, looking down at her paper as she fiddled with her earring. "It really is! And I just can't seem to remember all the rules for calc."

Ami offered hesitantly, "Maybe we could go over some of the material together. I could really use a review, too. I'm planning on taking a calculus course next semester."

"Really? You wouldn't mind?"

"Really. It would be helpful for me, too." The two smiled at each other across the table, Ami's fingers stopped twisting themselves into nervous knots.

An hour and a few more checks with Ami about tricky integrations later, Lita's problem set was done. She sat back with a contented sigh. "Wow, that went much faster than before!" she said cheerfully. "Any luck yet?"

Ami shook her head. "No, I couldn't find anything."

"You were looking up things like wineries because of the 'brewers of fine mead' line, right? Maybe they used to or still keep bees here for the agricultural students. Honey is the key ingredient in mead."

Her eyes lit up, and she jotted down a note to herself. "That's terrific. I didn't think of that."

"But maybe it's not so specific," Lita said quickly. "Maybe they just used mead because it rhymed, and they really just meant any alcoholic beverage."

"That could be the case… or maybe they don't mean such a formal operation. It could indicate a group of people who made mead or other types of alcohol, but it wasn't their main profession."

"Like during Prohibition?" The Roaring Twenties had been one of her favorite topics in US history.

This time Ami didn't say anything, but her pen was moving at the speed of light.

After a few minutes, when it seemed like she was finished for the time being, Lita said, "Hey, Ami?"

"Yes?"

"Do you have any classes this afternoon?" When the other girl shook her head, she said, "Then do you want to come bake cookies with Serena and me? We were planning on bringing them to the meeting tonight."

Ami agreed to the plans enthusiastically and gathered her things with a cheerful smile on her face. "Will there be oatmeal cookies?" she asked hopefully.

Lita laughed. "Well, we were planning for chocolate chip, but we can add that too. I have a great oatmeal chocolate chip recipe."

* * *

It was a rare day that Kent subjected himself to dining hall food but, as he was finding out for the second time, Zane was surprisingly difficult to resist. He took his soup, salad, and two slices of pizza, the most edible things he had been able to find, over to an empty table.

When he came back from the beverage dispensers with a glass of water, he saw that Zane's tray was piled with fries, two cheeseburgers, something that had been labeled "beef brisket" but looked like a book drowned in brown sludge, and a slice of frosted yellow cake. He started with the cake.

"Do you play a sport?" Kent asked.

"Nope."  
"Run a lot?"

"Nope."

"I wish my metabolism was still like yours."

"Well, I wish I was taller and had big guns, but I'm stuck being me, and you're stuck being you," Zane said with his mouth full. He got up abruptly and came back with a badly-scratched plastic cup filled with radioactive yellow liquid.

Kent eyed it with unconcealed disgust. "What _is_ that?"

"This? Mountain Dew or whatever substitute they're using for it these days. Mello Yello, maybe?"

He drained the cup and settled down with his knife and fork to do battle with the brisket. A moment later, he complained, "I'm still thirsty."

"So get another drink."

Zane grinned. "Too lazy to get up again." When he opened his mouth to take a bite out of the brisket, a stream of water jettisoned from Kent's cup. It made a beautiful high arc in the air before it landed in Zane's mouth.

He promptly choked and dropped the loaded fork onto his plate, and gravy splashed everywhere. The stains on his shirt was the least of their problems, however. Kent felt a sinking feeling in his stomach as one of the girls at the next table exclaimed, "That was so cool! How did you do that?"

"It's an engineering project," Kent said quickly, fearing that Zane would be either too surprised or too into impressing the girls to come up with an appropriate explanation. "On, er, self-propelling liquids."

"Can you do it again?"

Zane smiled at them, managing to look charming despite the fact that he had gravy on his nose and chin. "Sorry, it still has some glitches in it."

After the girls turned back to their meals, they finished eating and left the dining hall as soon as possible.

"You're lucky we weren't sitting by any real engineers," Zane informed him. "Self-propelling liquids, where did that come from?"

"Well, next time you can cover your own ass," Kent retorted.

Zane's good mood was undiminished. "This is wicked!"

"What, your newfound ability to steal other people's drinks?"

His green eyes gleamed as he said, "No, I can move things! Like…levitation. Or telekinesis. I know I could lift heavier things. Like these rocks and that bike over there. Or maybe even a person!"

"No. Absolutely not. No. Don't look at me like that. I said no. That's my final answer."

"All _right_," Zane said, looking briefly crestfallen.

"No lifting people. And no moving things in public where anyone can see you," he ordered.

"Yes, Dad. I'll practice in my room when Melvin's not there."

Kent had an image of Zane standing with his hands outstretched, looking up at every piece of furniture in the room floating up near the ceiling.

"When your laptop falls on the ground, don't say I didn't warn you."

"Hey, how did you know I wanted to try that?"

* * *

He sighed. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"_Yes_." It was the third time he had asked her this question in the past fifteen minutes. "How many times in your life do you get to see a talking sneaker?"

"I wish I could pass on it," he muttered. "It's really rude, so don't say I didn't warn you."

"Yes, I know. You've told me that already."

Jayden frowned, knowing he had to stop stalling sometime. He unlocked his door and preceded her in, looking around cautiously for the sneaker. It was snuggled contentedly in the center of his pillow.

"Hey! Get off!" he ordered, moving towards it.

With a grumble, it hopped to the floor, leaving a faint brown print on the white pillowcase. Noticing they had company, it yelled, "I knew you were out meeting chicks without me!"

Rei leaned down to peer at it, a fascinated expression on her face.

The laces fluttered in a jaunty fashion, tying themselves in a perfect bow. "Hello there, gorgeous."

Jayden snatched it away. "Behave, you. Hey!" It poked him in the arm with the end of a shoelace.

Thoughtfully, she said, "I wonder what it says about you if your sneakers are perverted."

He blushed deeply. "I didn't – it just – it has nothing to do with me!"

"And your chalk knows profanity, and your water bottle sings explicit song lyrics," she continued as if he hadn't said anything.

"Those are not mine."

"That's true," she conceded. "Tell me what Trista said again?"

"Well, first she asked me if it had given me any advice, and then she said I should use the 'magic word' to make it stop. Apparently it's something more esoteric than 'open sesame' or 'abracadabra.'"

At her puzzled look, he said, "They're kind of these clichéd words that are associated with magic in the popular press." He sighed heavily. "Fuck Lord Jadeite and his great imagination."

"Is that where the chalk and water bottle get it from?" she asked.

The response was a dark look from him and some sniggers from the sneaker.

"So we need to find out what the word is that makes this stop, as well as start. What were you talking about in class today?"

"I don't know… you were there too, weren't you? Something about secret messages and important economic sectors."

"They don't seem to have much in common. Can you try to remember exactly what you said?"

"Well, first I wanted to say that the political structure made it such that any messages had to be passed secretly, necessitating the use of kinship networks, but I don't think I got that far. And the second time, I was talking about how the use of silk and cotton really took off and revitalized the economy during that particular era."

"And this morning?"

"I can't remember. I woke up before my alarm, and then the sneaker started talking to me."

"What woke you up?"

"Let me think. It was because…oh, right, I got a text message."

This time, they both saw the blue light blaze along his right sneaker.

"Hey, dude. I was wondering when you were going to join the party," its partner said.

The right wiggled experimentally and loosened its laces. "Ah, that feels good."

"I think your word is 'text.'"

Jayden looked around warily to see what else was going to start coming to life, but it seemed to be safe as long as he wasn't the one saying it.

"Text message, textiles, and probably something like 'context' or 'subtext' when you were talking about secret messages," Rei continued.

"Trista said I could stop it with a word, but if I just keep saying te– _it_, I'll just wake up more things. Maybe it's an entirely different word to make it stop? But how am I going to figure out what it is?" He ran his fingers through his hair agitatedly. "And why t– I mean, why that word? It's so common! It keeps coming up!"

She shrugged. "Maybe it means something different in whatever language they used to speak back then."

While the sneakers ogled her, Jayden paced the room, deep in thought. His eyes fell on his old comic book collection and then traveled over his bookshelf, and he thought of the fantasy novels he liked to read in which magic often had its own form of rules and logic. "Well… what if I say it backwards?"

"What?"

He grabbed a notebook and a pen from his desk and wrote out "txet" and showed it to her.

"It's worth a shot."

His look of triumph disappeared. "But I can't pronounce that."

* * *

Darien leaned against the wall by Rei's door and checked his watch again. She was late for their dinner date and wasn't answering her phone, and with all the weird things that had been occurring lately, he felt unusually concerned. His temper was not improved by the sounds emanating from Chad's room, which bore a closer resemblance to a cat being tortured than guitar playing.

Finally, the stairwell door opened, and Rei appeared. Her eyes shone with the memory of laughter, and her lips still held a smile. She looked like she had been having the time of her life, and he couldn't remember ever putting that expression on her face before. Juxtaposed against his worry for her, the thought spiked his irritation.

"You look like you're in a good mood."

"Oh, Darien." She glanced at her watch, and her smile faded slightly. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize how late it was getting. I hope you haven't been waiting for long."

"No, not too long. So, what's the joke?" he asked, following her into her room.

Rei looked up at him, her eyes sparkling with mirth. "Jayden's shoe emergency. Have you heard about it?"

"Yeah, I've heard."

The flat tone finally alerted her to his mood. "Is something wrong? I really am sorry about being late."

Her sincere distress made him feel churlish. "No, it's not a big deal. I was just worried. All kinds of strange things have been happening, and…well, I was worried about you."

She squeezed his hand gently. "I'm sorry. I'm fine, really."

He smiled at her, and they left for dinner after she got her things together. Things seemed to go back to normal as they quietly conversed about their classes, his medical school applications, and the publishing internship she had gotten for the following summer.

Towards the end of dinner, Rei said, "It seems like almost everyone's encountered something Quest-related recently. Have you?"

Darien's fork stopped halfway to his mouth. He'd forgotten that he had never told her about the roses. At first it was because he hadn't wanted to worry her, and then it had seemed so trivial once stranger things had started to happen. He also didn't want to tell her that he had been hoping that if he ignored it, it would go away.

In addition, he hadn't really had the chance. They both had been so busy lately that she hadn't been by his place, and they had missed two Wednesday meetings in a row. He had canceled once when his lab was having a farewell lunch for one of the post-docs, and the other time she had been preparing for her internship interview.

"I suppose," he said reluctantly. "It was very minor in comparison to everything else, though."

"What happened? Why didn't you tell me?"

"It was those roses I have in my apartment; they turned from yellow to red and grew some thorns. Look, it wasn't a big deal, and I just forgot to tell you about it. We've had so many other things going on."

He was both surprised and guilty to see how upset she looked.

"But… I really wish you would tell me these things. It's important," she said softly.

"All right, I will, but I think you're taking this Quest business a little too seriously."

Something about his tone and expression reminded her of her father, and it really ticked her off. "Well, I don't think you're taking it seriously enough!"

"What? How can you say that? I just talked to Trista about how things are getting out of hand."

Rei narrowed her eyes. "When did you talk to Trista?"

"Um…Tuesday morning."

"I see. And who else was with you?"

He felt that he was on rocky ground. "Kent and Jayden. Look, it's not like–"

"You guys went all macho and decided to confront Trista behind our backs? It certainly looks that way to me."

"We were going to fill everyone in during the meeting tonight. Anyway, it would have looked pretty strange to have all ten of us marching into Charon to confront her."

It hurt her to be grouped in with everyone else. To hide her feelings, she made a brushing-off motion with her hand and scoffed, "Please. That's just an excuse."

"It wasn't my idea! Kent grabbed me on his way out, and we ran into Jayden after we got there."

"You can't have it both ways, Darien. Either it was a proactive decision on your part to finally take this seriously, or you were still dragging your heels and just went along with whatever the other guys were doing."

Her accusations were quite on target, and it stung, which made him speak more sharply than he intended. "Rei, I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but things really slipped my mind. I'm giving up a lot of time I don't really have in the first place, and I don't want to spend what little time we do have together arguing." He sighed agitatedly. "I really wish we hadn't gotten involved in this."

It was the first time he had said it, but she had been worried about he felt that way from the start. "I feel really pressured when you say that. It makes me feel like I forced you into doing this."

"You didn't. I wanted to, to make sure you would be all right." He could see that instead of helping, his words seemed to be making her more frustrated, but he couldn't understand why. "Tell me what you want, Rei."

"I just – I want you to talk to me about things. The important things."

"I do talk to you."

"Then please listen more closely to what I'm saying."

They left under an apparent truce, a lurking discomfort remained. It was their first argument that hadn't been solved with a polite apology.

* * *

AN: Poor Mina and Kent (yes, and Rei and Darien, but you must have seen that one coming). The downsides of being the leaders… Next chapter: the long-awaited group meeting, where all ten of them get together again for the first time since the Quest started. We find out what's in the book that Mina and Kent found, and the guys decide they want more modern names – or do they? Thanks for reading and reviewing!


	7. Chapter 7

_Seven_

Mina sat on her bed, balancing her budget and trying to figure out how much she could afford to spend on a new dress for the winter formal. She frowned at the total showing up in the Excel worksheet, then went up the column to see where things could be trimmed. She might be able to make things work if she subsisted on ramen and cereal for two weeks and if she cut Starbucks from her diet entirely.

Thinking about food reminded her that she was supposed to eat dinner on time for once, since they would all be meeting at Kent's later. She went down to the kitchen and warmed up a bowl of chicken noodle soup. After bringing it upstairs, she realized she had forgotten a spoon.

When Mina got back to her room, she was greeted by the sight of a small white cat hunched over the soup bowl, busily devouring its contents. It didn't stop eating, even when she moved closer to it.

"How did you get in here, kitty?" she asked, glancing over at the closed window. Maybe it belonged to someone visiting one of her sisters; it looked too clean to be a stray, and it had a dark blue collar around its neck. She was about to go into the other rooms and ask whose cat it was when she noticed the golden patch of fur, which bore a distinct resemblance to a crescent moon, on the cat's forehead.

She reached for the cat's identification tag, which was shaped like a golden heart. Her full name was engraved on it.

"Well," Mina said shakily, "it's a good thing no one here is allergic to cats."

She sat down on her bed until she felt calmer, watching the cat finish her dinner and wondering if she should be annoyed at this highhandedness. When the cat sat back and started grooming itself meticulously, she smiled. Finally, she got up to see if Ana Cecilia, who was planning to be a vet, was in her room. The cat jumped onto the floor with a thud and meowed once, loudly, before following her into the hallway.

When Mina poked her head in the open door, the cat did the same. "Ana Cecilia?"

The brunette girl was sitting on her bed with Rita, and they were watching a rerun of _Charmed_. She looked up with a smile and hit the pause button. "Hi, Mina. What's up?"

"My, um, aunt gave me this cat as an early Christmas present. She said it used to be a stray. Do you think you could take a look for me?" She crossed her fingers behind her back, hoping her story sounded convincing.

"Sure." When they came into the room, Ana Cecilia scooped up the cat and examined it carefully. "Oh, what a handsome kitty. Do you have a name yet?"

"Not really…I was thinking of naming it Artemis," Mina said on the spur of the moment, even though she didn't even know its sex. Ruefully, she thought, 'Too much Quest-related stuff on the brain.' But somehow, the name seemed oddly fitting.

The cat meowed again, as if acknowledging that it, too, knew its name.

"Looks good. Healthy. He appears to be well socialized, at least around people, but I would wait awhile before taking him around any dogs. It looks like he's about a year old."

"Are you sure it's male?"

She looked slightly offended. "Yes, of course."

"And it's a definitely a cat?" Mina couldn't help asking.

"_Yes_. What else does it look like to you?"

Rita asked, "Mina, is everything okay? You've been acting kind of strange lately…"

"Oh yeah, everything's fine. Just, you know… guy problems," she improvised.

"With Alex?"

"Who? Oh, no, not him." Alex was her date for the charity gala.

The other two girls stared at her. Rita said disbelievingly, "What? You spent practically all of September figuring out how to make him ask you to the gala, and now you can't even remember who he is?"

Those were the days, Mina thought nostalgically. When she had nothing more to worry about besides boys and grades and whether she would be able to graduate on time after switching majors so many times.

Rita continued, "Something seriously weird is going on with you, Mina."

She looked back helplessly, trying to come up with a convincing explanation. "Mental breakdown" was a bit too dramatic, and she thought Nevan might want to make use of that one. He had sent her an unfathomable, three-word text a couple nights ago: "It's the stars." She still hadn't figured it out yet.

Rita snapped her fingers. "Oh, I know! It must be another guy. Someone you're more into than Alex. Is it that guy you were asking me about – Kenton Jamison?"

"What?" she stuttered nervously. The cat, who had been purring contentedly in her lap, took the opportunity to nip at her fingers lightly.

"Kat knows him. She told me she saw the two of you hugging by the archaeology museum on Thursday night, when she was on a date with Alan."

"No! We weren't hugging! It's nothing like that. We're just friends."

'More like we went through the fastest and most effective way to develop claustrophobia together,' she thought sourly.

"Well, if you don't want him, I'll take him," Ana Cecilia offered.

Mina looked up in shock. "Kent?"

"No, Alex. I don't even know this Kent person."

"Sure, go ahead," she said absently. Shortly afterwards, she left to buy litter, cat food, a litter box, and a lot more toys than she'd been planning on getting, glad of the opportunity to escape the speculative look in Rita's eyes.

* * *

Kent surveyed his crowded apartment bewilderedly. He couldn't remember a time when there had been so many people in it, but everyone seemed to have found a seat and to be enjoying themselves. Ami, Serena, and Lita had squeezed onto the living room couch together, while Jayden had claimed his ergonomic desk chair. Nevan was sprawled on the carpet next to the coffee table, which made him glad he'd vacuumed ahead of time. Rei was also seated on the carpet, but much more decorously. Zane was perched on the kitchen counter, levitating random objects and talking a mile a minute to Darien and Mina, who were sitting at the kitchen table.

Just after eight ten, he cleared his throat and Mina rose from her chair.

"So, we're all here–"

"Tonight we should–"

They stopped and looked at each other in confusion.

"Ladies first," Jayden suggested, reaching out to grab the cookie Zane was levitating from the box and pop it into his mouth.

"Hey! That was mine!"

"Finders, keepers."

"Ahem." When they fell silent, Kent gestured for Mina to continue.

"So we have two main items on the agenda for tonight. The first is to discuss what new powers everyone's been developing, and the second is to talk about the two artifacts – the scroll Ami and Zane found, and the book Kent and I…found."

Nevan chuckled. "You mean the one you guys stole from the museum?"

Mina's cheeks flushed. "It wasn't stealing. Exactly."

"Ami and I didn't ask permission from the archivist either," Zane piped up, getting up to grab a handful of cookies "the old-fashioned way."

Kent poured himself another glass of orange juice and drawled, "I feel so reassured that we're following your moral code."

"We could give them back," Ami spoke up. "We don't really need the scroll anymore, and perhaps we could make a photocopy of the book."

"That's easier said than done." Jayden adjusted his spectacles, rubbing at the slight red imprints on the bridge of his nose. "Can you imagine walking up to someone and saying, 'Hey, we just found this book in a time and place we weren't supposed to be – under the freaking museum, after it was closed. And while we're at it, please take this scroll we borrowed without asking."

"What if we go when the archives are closed–"

"If we're caught, we could get into serious trouble for breaking into a university building. Especially one that also houses the admissions office and all the student records."

Thoughtfully, Zane pulled out the green stone that had been attached to the scroll and turned it over in his fingers. "Maybe we're meant to keep them. And I'm not just saying that to make my conscience shut up. This is zoisite – and if I'm not mistaken, that pink stone you're holding is kunzite, Kent. They match the names Trista used when she gave us our powers."

"What use would the university have for an old book and a scroll that makes no sense, anyway?" Lita wondered.

"They could be valuable historical artifacts."

"Yes, but s_omeone_ already knew where these things were – they sent us to find them," Darien pointed out. "It's not like they've been completely lost and forgotten over the years and we're the first people to rediscover them."

Jayden gave a slow nod of agreement. "From the questing lore, these types of objects come to those that are meant to find them. And if they prove unworthy or the time comes when they're meant to pass into other hands, they just sort of… disappear."

"All right. I guess if everyone's okay with it, we can hold onto the things for now and see what happens," Mina said. When they nodded, she asked, "So book and scroll first, or powers?"

"The book!"

"Powers!"

"Book!"

"I'd like to see the scroll."  
"Calm down," Kent spoke loudly over the din. "We're going to get to everything tonight, so there's no need to be impatient."

"I'd like to see everyone's powers," Serena said wistfully. "Nothing exciting has happened to me yet."

It was enough to make those curious about the book acquiesce gracefully.

"Who wants to go first?" Kent asked, a teasing glint in his eye as he added, "I think we've had plenty of demonstrations from Zane already."

While he made a face, Mina offered, "I can, but we'll need to turn off the lights for the full effect."

Kent got up to switch them off, and Mina concentrated briefly before a round globe of ochre light appeared, cradled in her hands.

Those who hadn't seen it happen before murmured in surprise, and Serena leaned closer to touch it with a tentative fingertip. "It's warm!" she exclaimed.

"But not hot? You're not burned, are you?" Mina asked anxiously. She let the light dissolve, and Kent turned on the lights again.

"No, I'm fine," the other blonde reassured her. Her cerulean eyes were dreamy as she said, "When I touched it, it kind of made me think of things that I really like. Sunshine, blue skies, chocolate, my family. And things I really – well, wanted, I guess, at some point in my life. This doll from when I was about five years old, a kitten, and my high school crush."

She blinked once, then blushed slightly when she realized all eyes were on her. "I guess that sounds really weird."

"I usually don't see anything like that when I cast the light," Mina said. "But this time, I feel like I saw some of the same images – sunny skies, red roses, and a boy I don't know."

"What did he look like?" Serena asked curiously.

"Mm… spiky black hair, dark eyes. And he had really long eyelashes. He was pretty cute."

"That sounds like Seiya."

"Well, maybe it isn't that farfetched. After all, you were supposed to have received the powers of Venus. She was the Roman goddess of love and beauty," Rei pointed out.

"And she was associated with things like desire, pleasure, honor, and grace," Nevan added.

"Hm. I guess that means I'm more than just a human flashlight," Mina said, looking both pleased and wary at the prospect.

Kent glanced over at her. "It was certainly a very useful ability to have down in those tunnels."

She smiled back. "So was the power to work metal."

"Wait, are you telling me–" Zane broke off when the stainless steel bowl on the kitchen table melted into a puddle, then reformed into its original shape. "No way. I want that one!" he looked at Kent beseechingly.

"Is that how you got back into your room the night you were locked out?" Nevan asked, and Kent nodded.

Zane's green eyes widened. "Think of all the places we could get into with that!"

Rei frowned reprovingly. "These powers should be used for good, not evil."

He swiveled around to stare at her. "Who said anything about evil? I just want to get a look at those top-secret engineering labs. And by look, I really mean just look. Can you imagine what they keep in there?"

Even she had to smile at his rapturous expression.

Ami, who had been taking assiduous notes, looked up. "So speaking from a strictly utilitarian point of view, Kent could theoretically get us into any place on campus we needed to go, and Mina would be able to guide us in places without electricity or where we wouldn't want people to be able to see electrical lights from the outside. Along with these thoughts or sensations the light invokes in people who touch it."

Kent frowned pensively. "Perhaps something else, as well. I don't know too much about metalwork at present, but Trista mentioned that Lord Kunzite had once crafted a sword for the leader of Serenity's guard, or something like that."

"That would be really cool. I'd like a sword," Zane said.

"I wouldn't mind one, either," Darien added. Nevan, Jayden, and Lita nodded in agreement.

Kent laughed. "Two things: first, I don't know if _I_ actually know how to make a sword, even if Lord Kunzite could. We don't know how this all works, exactly – I might have the raw ability, but not the knowledge or experience. Even if I managed to make one, it might break at the first use. Second, do any of you know how to use a sword without hurting yourselves?"

Jayden sighed and conceded, "You have a point. But at the same time, I have to say that if we're going up against hellhounds, a sword sounds a hell of a lot more useful than talking sneakers."

Rei smiled. "Or chalk, or a water bottle."

At the others' looks of confusion, Jayden elaborated on his ability to animate inanimate objects, and the trigger words he and Rei had discovered.

"Maybe you're supposed to ask them for advice. That seems to be what Trista was saying," Kent recalled.

He scoffed. "Right. The thing offered advice of its own accord when it first woke up. It told me to give it a bath and that it wanted to meet other shoes – girl shoes."

Lita leaned forward, resting her chin in her hand. "Maybe you need to animate something older than a sneaker or a water bottle, something that's been around since the university was founded. I bet it could tell us some really interesting things."

A flurry of excitement broke out.

"There are at least a couple buildings around that are that old–"

"Right, but everyone's going to notice if something as big as Charon Hall starts talking and moving around. Especially if there are still people inside."

"Maybe at nighttime, if it's a class building and not a dorm?"

"How about one of those plaques that says 'Such-and-such was dedicated by so-and-so on this date?'"

"That might work."

"A painting? Is there one of Luna and Artemis around somewhere?"

"A statue…" Mina froze as she thought about the fairy statue, with which she'd had two strange encounters already. She wondered what it would say if Jayden awakened it.

Nevan let out a startled laugh. "Saiph says that in times past, Lord Jadeite was followed by an army that was both fearless and bloodless, but never wordless."

Rei murmured, "Well, they're certainly right about the 'never wordless' part."

Zane glanced around the room once, as if tallying up its occupants again. "Who exactly is telling you this, Nev?"

The brunet sighed. "Saiph. He's one of the stars in the constellation Orion. Apparently Lord Nephrite's power involved talking to the stars."

Kent raised his eyebrows. "You mean you hear them talking to you _inside your head_? All the time?"

Nevan sat up straight, glaring back at him. "Hey, I already spent a lot of time over the past week wondering whether I was going insane. If Jayden can talk to sneakers, why is my talking to stars out of the realm of possibility?"

"Well, we can all see and hear the objects Jayden animates, but it's a little harder to think of talking to the stars, especially if none of us can hear them," Darien explained. "After all, they're balls of plasma millions of miles away, aren't they?"

Mina put a soothing hand on Nevan's arm. "Maybe a demonstration would help."

"What did you have in mind?" he inquired.

Her smile contained more than a touch of deviousness. "Well, if the stars know so much… surely they can tell you something about someone in this room that no one else would know about."

Nevan's midnight blue eyes blinked once, twice, then took on a slightly gazed cast as the information overload began. "The summer he turned seven, Kent refused to eat anything except Lucky Charms – for breakfast, lunch, and dinner – and he hasn't been able to eat them since. Just seeing them box makes him feel like puking. Zane cried when he found out Santa Claus isn't real, and he still feels a little sad when he sees Santa Clauses at the mall. Jayden has read every X-Men comic ever published. When he was younger, he wanted to be Professor X. Darien rereads his anatomy and physiology textbooks for fun. Rei is allergic to kiwi. Serena remembers the name of every rabbit she's ever owned – all seventeen of them. Mina was recruited by several colleges for volleyball. Ami likes going to aquariums. Lita's favorite flowers are daisies."

He was grinning when he finished. He was starting to see some of the upsides to this talking-to-the-stars thing.

Zane, in the meantime, was looking up at the ceiling nervously. "You mean they're watching us all the time? And they can hear us talking right now?"

"Yes, they can hear us talking now, and no, they don't watch us all the time. We're not interesting enough for them to be watching us every minute of the day, but if they wanted to, they could."

Lita laughed at the grimace on his face, while Jayden looked pleased. "You said something about an army before, right? That sounds impressive."

Some of the others did not look as thrilled. Mina commented, "You know, for something that wasn't supposed to put us in danger, things are starting to sound awfully warlike." She shrugged, her expression rueful. "Oh, well. Does anyone have any other powers to show off?"

Darien spread his hands. "Apparently I can make roses turn from yellow to red. I didn't bring them with me, but they're really not all that interesting to look at."

"You forgot the part about how they grew killer thorns," Zane muttered.

"Right. And didn't Trista say something about how we would need them when we met the hellhounds?" Jayden asked.

Zane shook his head. "I don't know, man. Those things are sharp, but if hellhounds are what I think they are, unless they're deathly allergic to roses, I don't see how flowers are going to be of much use."

"Speaking of hellhounds…can we all take a look at that scroll, Ami?" Mina asked.

The other girl nodded and passed the item to her left. It made a slow circuit of the room – they had all read the lines already, but feeling the texture of the parchment and seeing the gracefully inked lines gave them the odd feeling that they were holding something from another age.

As they passed it along carefully, Zane said, "From what we've come up with so far, it seems like part of the Quest involves finding a crystal that's buried deep within the earth, somewhere near the elusive 'brewers of fine mead.' Along the way, we're going to have to face a dragon or some hellhounds – most likely acting as the guardians of said crystal. I guess our major tasks right now would be to find the spot where the crystal is hidden and figure out how to take on those creatures."

With a soft flump, Nevan fell back from a sitting position so he was lying down on the carpet. "So we get to choose between dueling a dragon or hellhounds? Not a great choice."

"But why are we looking for a crystal?" Serena asked. "Aren't we supposed to be finding Serenity and Endymion?"

All of them looked as confused as she did. "I don't know. Perhaps the crystal will tell us where they are," Ami guessed.

"It could be the case. Maybe the book has a clue in it," Zane suggested.

The others agreed, and Kent produced the book. He asked Mina, "Would you like to do the honors?"

She nodded and took the slim volume from him. She untied the thin gray ribbon, but paused before opening it to the first page. "The book seems old, but it's in excellent condition, and it has the most gorgeous illustrations inside. From the inscription on the flyleaf, we think it was written and illustrated by Luna Georgiadis, one of the university's founders, for her daughter, Diana."

"You mean it's a children's storybook?" Jayden asked in surprise.

"No, I think it's more than that," Mina said slowly. "More like a legacy. But…maybe it's best if I just read it out loud. It won't take too long."

She cleared her throat, her attention so focused on the elegant script that she didn't notice everyone leaning forward expectantly, even the most reluctant among them.

"This is the dedication: My darling daughter – this is the story you have always known, the one that must never be forgotten."

The sound of the page turning was a whispery crinkle that should have been noiseless in the crowded room, but instead seemed as loud as a shout.

"In the Age of Silver, the Moon Kingdom's most precious treasure was not made of gemstones. Nor could it be measured in ingots of metal or glass, or wielded in a war. It was not a crystal, though there were those who thought the future of the Moon and the entire Silver Alliance lay in crystal.

"This was a treasure beyond price, and yet it circulated freely among the people of the Moon. It was not sealed away in vaults or hidden from sight. But it did live in the palace. And oh, what a beautiful palace it was, all graceful arches and curving lines, balconies covered with flowering vines, and the whole built of a flawless white marble that never showed a single blemish. The treasure was even lovelier than the palace.

"She was the Princess Serenity. She was possessed of the purest soul and the most generous of hearts. Her compassion knew no bounds, and the world was brighter when she smiled, for she truly saw and brought out the best in all those she met. It was believed that she, of all people, was the one who could bring peace to a troubled world.

"Although Serenity walked freely among her people, she was not without protection. She had four loyal guardians who had been at her side since her birth – one each from the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter. They were women as young and beautiful as Serenity herself, who served as models of wisdom, power, spirituality, and strength. Even more importantly, they were sisters of the heart.

"From a young age, Serenity had heard the stories about Earth. It was said that those who dwelled there lived short, violent lives full of hatred and sorrow and all the baser emotions, and did not know how to exist in harmony."

"Are you sure this is a _children's_ storybook?" Zane whispered under his breath.

Mina ignored him and continued, "But night after night, she could see the lovely blue sphere from her window, and something deep within her yearned to see the forbidden planet. She snuck away from the watchful gaze of her guardians and down to Earth with a willing heart and an open mind. On her first trip there, she met a Terran who was handsome, strong, and kind. Endymion was the prince of his people, destined to lead them to war, but he wished for peace and prosperity above all else.

"The beauty of their inner visions drew these two young people to each other, and as often as she could, Serenity would come down from the Moon to spend time with Endymion in Elysion. When they discovered her missing, her guardians would come down to retrieve her. They gave her terrible scoldings and did their best to keep her on the Moon where she belonged, but in time they, too, found themselves drawn to the Earth and its people. As the princess and the prince fell in love, so too did Serenity's guardians with the four lords whose duty it was to watch over Endymion.

"During this time, however, the universe grew darker and darker, threatened by an ancient menace aided by the eternal enemies of humankind: avarice, envy, selfishness, and ambition. The planets of the Silver Alliance blamed the Terrans for this darkening, sensing that the source of the evil was located on Earth. However, they failed to recognize their own complicity: for centuries, they had watched disdainfully from above, never trying to understand the plight of the Terrans and blaming only them for the woes of the universe at large.

"The ancient evil, Metallia, was fed by these currents of dark emotions and aided by a young sorceress named Beryl. Beryl, who had been thwarted in her love for Endymion, felt the ashes of her love rekindle with bitter hate, and she wanted Endymion and Serenity to feel her pain tenfold. First, she stole the four lords from him, twisted them, and gave them back so altered that the hearts of Serenity's guardians shattered.

"Beryl conquered the Earth, and Endymion was forced to flee to the Moon from those he had loved best. Warped by the darkness, the four lords served as the generals leading the invasion of the Moon Kingdom. They met their former lovers in battle, and none of them rose to return to their beloved charges, the ones they had placed above all else.

"Beryl struck down Endymion first, wanting Serenity to experience the pain of love being ripped away from her. As she held him in her arms, Serenity saw the loss of everything and everyone she loved, of the future she and Endymion had dreamed of and worked so hard to bring about. The queen of the Moon managed to seal away Metallia, but only at the cost of her final breath. Her dying wish was that one day, her daughter, her prince, and their courts would be able to begin a new life and build the beautiful world they had envisioned.

"And that, Diana, is the wish we must always work to fulfill."

Mina let out a long, slow breath, and held out the book to show them the final illustration.

Ten figures stood together in a garden filled with red roses, and a silver crescent moon rose high in the sky above them. Although none of the faces were distinct, the artist had somehow managed to convey grace, beauty, strength, and power with the skillful strokes of her brush. The central pair shared a loving embrace, a red rose fastened in her flowing hair and another in his hand. The two to their right each held sheathed swords; their free hands were clasped between them. The next couple stood close together. He had his arm around her shoulder, while hers was tucked securely around his waist. To the left of the middle couple, two figures with long, wavy hair shared a kiss, and beside them, the male figure of the final couple cupped the cheek of his diminutive partner with a gloved hand.

They sat together in stunned amazement until Mina's hand cramped and she gently closed the book and set it down on the coffee table.

"I've got to say…I feel kind of depressed now," Zane admitted.

Nevan nodded emphatically. "How the hell did the little girl fall asleep after hearing that?"

Lita gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "Eat another cookie; it'll make you feel better."

* * *

After some more discussion about the more mysterious parts of the story, like what it meant to say the future of the Moon Kingdom lay in crystal, how they might locate the brewers of fine mead, and what other kinds of powers the rest of them would manifest, they decided to call it a night.

"I guess that's about everything. Does anyone else have something they'd like to talk about?" Mina asked, yawning behind her hand.

Zane jumped to his feet, waving one hand wildly above his head. With the hours he was used to keeping, the night was just starting. "Speaking on behalf of the guys present, I think we need cooler names than Lords Whatsits," he declared.

"That's the first I've heard of it. What did you have in mind?" Kent asked.

Zane pointed at him. "You can be 'Metal-Melter,' and Jayden can be 'The Animator.' That has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?"

Jayden gave him a double thumbs-down. "I sound like a Disney employee. No, a Disney employee would have a fancier, more cutesy title. I sound like a broke company's employee."

"Well, would you rather be 'Sneaker Speaker?'"

"For the last time, it wasn't just a sneaker!"

"If it's between that, chalk, and a water bottle as your claim to fame, I would stick with the sneaker," Nevan advised him.

"Nev, you could be the 'Star Master!'" Zane continued enthusiastically.

The look on the brunet's face was a mix of pain and confusion. "What, like the demented cousin of the StairMaster?"

"Hey, it's difficult coming up with something to do with stars on the spot, okay? Astro Boy was already taken. Don't be such a critic if you can't come up with something original on your own."

"I have no problem with Lord Nephrite. Really."

"What about me?" Darien asked, who didn't really want a new name but was feeling a little left out of the "Lord Something" loop.

"Probably 'Roseboy,'" Jayden sniggered.

"Well…um…you can be… 'The Gardener!'"

Kent couldn't keep a straight face at the expression on Darien's face as he said, "Congratulations, Darien. You are now a retired wrestler."

"Or one that never had a snowball's chance in hell to begin with," Nevan replied. "And what are you going to be, Z?"

"I shall be…wait for it… 'Zoisite the Magnificent!'" he announced grandly.

Jayden lost it and had to wipe tears from his eyes. "What, like the pharaoh that never was?"

"No, I've got it. He'll be 'The Tosser,'" Kent said, giving the title just a touch of a posh British accent.

Nevan choked on his soda while Mina, Lita, and Serena exploded in laughter. Ami, who hadn't watched quite as many Hugh Grant movies as the rest of them, looked confused. Mina leaned over and whispered something in her ear, which made her giggle and blush at the same time.

Zane turned beet red. "All right, I get it. We'll just stick with being named after rocks."

* * *

AN: Moving along for more clues and powers, most likely clues before powers. Thanks for reading and reviewing!


	8. Chapter 8

_Eight_

One frosty November morning, Serena yawned widely as she walked over to Diana's House with Darien. Their weeks had intersected again, since Darien had missed his last volunteering session due to a bad cold.

"Didn't get enough sleep last night, Meatball Head?" he asked, his smile and sympathetic tone taking the sting away from the nickname.

"I did, but I love sleep – you can never get too much of it."

It was clear that not many of the kids had reached the age where they felt the same way as she did. They were impatient for the weekend fun to begin and immediately drew Serena and Darien into a game of hide-and-seek in the attic.

They were on the third game, and Darien was It, when the matron called the kids down to lunch.

"But you haven't found Serena yet," Tom piped up.

"I'll find her and then we'll come down. You kids go ahead or Ms. Cassidy will have to come up here and scold us." As they clattered down the stairs, trading gossip about who had picked the best hiding spots and what might be for dessert, Darien scanned the cluttered room. Where could she have gone? At last, a bright ray of sunshine shone on one errant pigtail, which was peeking out from an old wardrobe.

He walked over and rapped smartly on the door. "Hey, Serena, didn't you hear the call? It's time for lunch."

Her voice was muffled as she said, "I heard, but I think I found something here! And I'm stuck."

"What did you do now?" Darien asked, shaking his head in amusement and exasperation as he knelt down.

"Well, I was waiting for you to find me, and you were taking a really long time so my leg fell asleep, and I fell. Then this hole opened up. I think there are some papers in here." She ended on a sneeze, then added unnecessarily, "It's so dusty in here."

He felt around the top of the opening to check how much space there was, then moved an old trunk away. "Here, I shifted some things around. If you can flatten yourself down a bit and back out feet first – watch your head there – I think you should be able to get out now."

Of course she bumped her head on her way out, despite his warning, but she came out dusty and smiling with triumph. She clutched a sheaf of yellowed papers in her hand.

"I wonder what they are. Old orphanage records?"

"I don't think so," Serena said, moving into the sunlight so she could read the spidery handwriting on the first page. "It says: _For the guardians of Elysion and the Silver Imperium_. I guess that's us."

Tom's footsteps pounded up the stairs as he informed them that he had been sent by the impatient cook. They shared a glance and a nod, and Darien slipped the papers into his jacket pocket.

* * *

He would have met her at the entrance to his dorm, if he hadn't overslept and gotten a late start on stuffing the nearly-sentient mass of junk populating their floor into the closet. Zane had a dust bunny hanging over his ear and a red spot on his arm from when the Xbox had fallen off its shelf, and when he reached the end of the hallway, he saw that he was too late.

His hallmate Paul was holding open the door for a familiar figure with dark hair and an overstuffed backpack, and he also had his hand extended as he moved in with a suave smile.

Zane ran up to them and grabbed her hand. "Hey, you're finally here. Come on, I have to show you something."

"What – sorry!" she called over her shoulder to the confused-looking Paul as he towed her away.

"That was rude. What are you in such a hurry about?" Ami asked.

He rolled his eyes, letting go of her now that they had reached the relative safety of his doorway. "I was saving you. He doesn't wash his hands after using the restroom."

"Oh." She wrinkled her nose. "No wonder the rates of disease transmission are so high in college dorms."

That wasn't quite the reaction he had been expecting, but it was certainly more amusing than the stereotypical "Ew, gross!" squeal.

When he opened the door and ushered her inside, they were greeted by the sight of Melvin kneeling on the floor before them. Keeping his eyes on the scuffed tiles, he said, "I humbly beg for the advice of the love guru."

"'Love guru?'" Ami asked curiously.

Melvin glanced up, only mildly surprised to see her there. "Well, he's the only guy on the floor who gets any, besides the football players and they don't really talk to the rest of us, so we call him the love guru," he explained helpfully, cheerfully unconcerned by the thunderous look on his roommate's face.

Zane gritted his teeth as she looked at him, blatantly unimpressed. "Melvin, don't you have somewhere else to be? Other people to annoy, lives to ruin?"

Completely missing the aggrieved sarcasm in his roommate's voice, Melvin checked his watch very seriously. "You're right! It's almost time for the _Magic_ club meeting. I should go early to make sure I get a good seat. I'll seek your advice later, great guru. Bye, Ami."

"You two know each other?" Zane asked as Melvin departed.

"We have a computer science class together."

Ami dug through her backpack for her notes, and he asked, "Why don't you have a seat? Anywhere's fine."

She looked between the chair and the bed, and decided almost instantaneously on the former. "So I thought we could put together a list of all the oldest buildings, paintings, and statues to see if any of them were around at the time of the university's founding, and then to see if Jayden can awaken any of them. We can also check any places that had links to bootleggers in the 1920s and places that have honey, like agricultural department or the cafeterias."

Zane shook his head. "If they use anything sweet, it's probably high fructose corn syrup or that poisonous stuff in the pink packets."

She had been working fairly steadily, he somewhat less efficiently, when he said, "You know, I'm not really like that."

"Like what?" she asked absently, not looking up from her laptop screen.

"Like a…you know… I'm not a player."

Now Ami glanced over. "Oh, you mean what Melvin said?"

"Yes. I don't – I don't lead girls on or sexile Melvin or anything like that."

She blinked at him. "That's…good. Sexiling is very inconsiderate."

Zane fought the urge to bang his head repeatedly against the nearest hard surface. "I mean, I don't really date that many girls. Not many at all. In fact, I'm not seeing anyone now. It's just that sometimes the guys have a hard time getting up the nerve to talk to girls, so they exaggerate things when they see a guy who has girl friends. I mean, girls who are friends, or friends who are girls, or anyway, just not girlfriends, one word."

Ami took a moment to consider this confusing stream of words. "Melvin and I have good conversations in class sometimes. He's very knowledgeable about computer science. And he also talks to Molly Baker."

"Okay, forget about what I said before. What I mean is, I _want_ to be in a monogamous relationship. When I find the right girl."

"That's nice…"

He sighed at her obvious confusion. "Never mind. It's my fate to be misunderstood. Please just forget I said anything. Except the part where I denied vicious and entirely false accusations made by my ungrateful roommate. Show me your list?"

* * *

They waited until they were a few blocks away from Diana's House before inspecting the papers. "What are these?" Serena asked curiously, squinting at pages upon pages of diagrams done in fine black ink.

"They look like blueprints. Take a look – this rectangle is labeled Charon Hall, and this one is Mariner Hall."

"These must be blueprints of the university. What were they doing at the orphanage?"

"Waiting for us, it seems," he said grimly.

Serena traced her finger along a narrow arc between the two dormitories. "I don't remember there being a direct path between Charon and Mariner."

"Maybe there used to be one, a long time ago."

She frowned pensively. "Maybe, but the trees there are really big and old. Like centuries old." Their eyes met in breathless silence. "There are secret tunnels under the university!"

"Mrrow."

"Oh, there must be a cat close by," Serena said, craning her neck in an attempt to spot it.

Darien was still studying the pages, trying to pick out other differences between the buildings detailed on the blueprints and the campus as it looked now.

"Mrrow?" the noise came again, louder this time.

"There you are, kitty!" she exclaimed when a small black cat emerged from the bushes by the side of the road.

It approached them with slow, deliberate steps, and Darien eyed it warily as he backed up. "It could be a stray, Serena. You shouldn't approach stray cats. Cat bites are much worse than dog bites, and then you'll have to go on a weeklong course of antibiotics."

"But she looks so clean and so tame! She must belong to someone in this neighborhood or close by."

The cat continued on its path, and when it reached her, began to rub against her legs affectionately, while Darien stood next to her with his arms crossed and an unhappy expression.

Serena leaned down slightly. "Look, she has a collar, and there's a tag. Maybe we can find out who she belongs to."

He sighed heavily. "I'll do it. If anyone's getting puncture wounds today, it might as well be me. Move aside, Meatball Head."

The cat sat perfectly still, except for the twitching of her tail, as Darien tentatively reached for the round metal tag hanging from the yellow collar. His eyes widened when he read the information on it.

"So? Who does she belong to?"

"You, it looks like." Darien held out the tag for her to see as she crouched down beside him. Engraved in the silver-toned metal was the name _Serena Wallace_.

"I always wanted a pet!" Serena exclaimed before scooping up the cat. It struggled and meowed at the indignity, but didn't make any moves to bite or scratch.

Her companion was somewhat less pleased by this turn of events. "This Quest stuff gets crazier by the minute. Color-changing roses, talking objects, forced adoption of cats, what's next? You know pets aren't allowed in the dorms," he pointed out.

She pouted. "I know, I know. Maybe someone else can keep her for me."

"Don't look at me. I'm not an animal person."

"But… Ami, Lita, and Rei all live in the dorms, too."

"How about Mina?"

Serena beamed. "Good idea. Mina strikes me as a cat person." She pulled out her phone to text Mina. They continued on their way back to campus, and the cat seemed content to tag along at their heels.

They were surprised when, within three minutes, she got a reply. "It looks like Mina…also just got a cat?"

"What's one more, then?" Darien asked desperately, having a feeling he knew where this was going to end up.

She shrugged. "She says one is all she can handle right now. Something about her housemates complaining about how he's destroying the couch."

"We could just see what happens. Maybe they'll disappear if someone comes by. These are magical cats, after all." Silence greeted this suggestion, and Darien ran through the other candidates. "How about Nevan? Can't RAs have pets?"

"Nope."

"She can live at Nevan's frat house."

She was already looking at him with big, pleading eyes. "No, they won't take good care of her there. She might be scared by all the loud parties and bad hygiene."

"What about Kent?" Darien asked, grasping at the last straw. "I'll call him right now." He pulled out his phone.

"Hello? Kent? Yeah, I'm fine, nothing's wrong, but Serena found this really beautiful cat. She's very tame and doesn't–"

"I know, but–"

"Come on–"

"Please?"

Darien turned back to her, his shoulders slumping in defeat as he hung up. "Two conditions: one, you need to live somewhere off-campus next year that allows animals."

She nodded eagerly. "I was thinking it might be really fun if Lita, Ami, and I all lived together, and maybe Rei if she's interested."

"None of them had better be allergic to cats," he muttered. "Condition number two: you're not just going to dump this cat with me and say goodbye to it for a year. You're going to have to help me – I don't know about cleaning litter boxes and playing with them and whatever else needs to be done to cats, and I'll need to go out of town for my med school interviews pretty soon. You'll have to come over to watch her when I'm out of town."

Serena said, "Of course I will! Thank you so much for doing this, Darien." She paused to pick up the cat again, thrusting her into Darien's face. "Luna thanks you too, doesn't she?"

"You're calling her Luna? How do you know it's a girl, anyway?" Darien stopped short when he spotted the four new letters that had appeared on Luna's tag.

* * *

"Okay, guys. I'm really going to need you to focus now." Nevan strolled along the street with his hands in his jeans pockets and his jacket open to the wind, ignoring the stares he was getting from the other students for appearing to be conversing with thin air. "What should I eat for lunch?"

"Chocolate brioche!" Bellatrix said instantly.

"Chicken noodle soup." This from Rigel, who sounded like he had come down with a cold, if stars could even come down with colds.

Nevan chuckled to himself. He knew, and they knew, and he knew they knew that he would get his usual buffalo chicken wrap.

"Get a sandwich and maybe a soup – I recommend something with plenty of vegetables – and _then_ maybe you can think about dessert."

"Aw, no, Bee, you're so boring!"

Primly, Betelgeuse replied, "Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, and you don't want to have clogged arteries."

Nevan stopped short, and the people walking behind him alternately bumped into him or berated him. "Are you trying to tell me something? Like, am I going to have a heart attack tomorrow?"

"No! I mean – not that I'm supposed to tell you such things–"

"Will I ever? Am I going to die of a heart attack?"

Betelgeuse sighed. "Eating healthy is good, general advice I would give to anyone, whether or not I know their future. Now keep walking before someone pushes you into the street and you get run over."

"Is that likely to happen?" Nevan rubbed his temples. This whole seeing-the-future thing wasn't working out the way he'd hoped it would. In fact, it was making him positively paranoid. "Well, let's move on to the more important stuff. Will I ever…win the lottery? Climb Mount Kilimanjaro? Discover the cure for cancer? And most importantly of all, will the Mariners ever win the World Series, and if so, when?"

In his world-weary way, Saiph said, "You know we cannot disclose such knowledge to you, Nevan. It would interfere with the normal course of mortal life."

"And what's the fun in knowing everything before it happens?" Bellatrix piped up in her clear voice.

"Just give it up, dude," Rigel advised, making a sound like he was blowing his nose.

He grumbled under his breath, knowing by now that it was useless to argue with them. "How about this: I'll stop bugging you guys if you answer one little question for me. Just one. Who will be the love of my life?" Mentally, he was adding more questions: Will she be hot? Will we get together? When will I meet her?

"It doesn't work that way, Nevan. You know we can't tell you anything like that."

"Aw, come on. Please?"

"Hey, look, isn't that Lita?"

Nevan turned to look and spotted a familiar brunette walking ahead of him. "Nice try, but don't think I've forgotten about this," he warned them. Waving to get her attention, he called, "Hey! Lita!"

She stopped and waited for him as he practically trampled the passersby to reach her. "Hi there. Where are you headed?"

"To get lunch," he replied promptly. "How about you?"

"Same here." Just then, a strong gust of wind blew wildly, driving leaves and other small debris through the air.

When it calmed down, Nevan said, "They don't call this the wind tunnel for nothing," and reached over to pick a brilliant red leaf from her hair.

"Thanks," she said, trying not to blush. "I was going to try Moonbeam Café – Kent told me they make great coffee. Have you ever been there?"

"No, but it looks like I will be soon." He showed her the leaf, which had the words _Jupiter and Nephrite, Moonbeam Café, 1 pm_ stenciled on it in gold letters. A luminous green stone dangled from the gold thread tied around its stem.

Lita looked around, trying to spot the culprit who might have dropped it. "That's so strange. I wonder where it came from."

"No idea. Shall we go, then?" he asked.

She nodded, and they walked on resolutely, making their way through a crowd of students. No one heard the wheezing chuckle of the old oak tree – no one, that is, except Lita, who glanced up in confusion and then dismissed the sound as a figment of her imagination.

* * *

More than a new dress or that great pair of shoes, she wanted relationship advice. But Rei wasn't one to come out and say such things, so she had invited Mina to go shopping with her. Mina was the logical, and pretty much the only, choice: she seemed capable of maintaining good relationships even with her exes; any of the guys might be considered an appropriate choice when hell froze over; and the other three girls were all freshmen with spotty relationship histories.

Rei was almost positive that Ami had never had a boyfriend, and from what she had told them, the ex Lita was semi-hung up on seemed both repugnant and like Darien's polar opposite. Rei could only guess what Serena's advice would be, but she figured it would be something along the lines of: do something cavity-inducingly sweet together and tell him how much you love him, and you'll be able to work anything out! The optimism and, well, everything about it was a little too much for her.

They had started out looking for Mina's dress for the winter formal and were currently browsing what Rei thought must be the stuffiest, most overheated dress department in the country.

The blonde was a few feet away, rummaging systematically through the racks. Rei could hear her muttering to herself, "Too short, too ugly, too slutty, too yellow, too poofy, and way, way, way too expensive. Don't they have anything here for normal people?"

Rei smiled. "I feel that most of the time when I'm shopping."

When they finally headed for the dressing rooms with an armful of dresses Mina had deemed acceptable, Rei perched on the edge of a chair and waited for her to reemerge. "So, who are you going with?"

"Alex Chan. Do you know him?" Mina asked, slightly out of breath from twisting her arm into a pretzel to get the back zipped up.

"No, I don't think so. Are you seeing him?"

Mina pushed open the door, clad in a white dress. "Not really. … I think I'll nudge him towards Ana Cecilia. They would be good together."

Rei blinked at her.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." She stepped back into the dressing room and shut the door.

"Actually, the dress was fine. But how can you just be so casual about encouraging your friend and this Alex to get together? You were interested in him at some point, weren't you?"

A frustrated hiss issued from the room before Mina answered, "Sorry, got my hair stuck on the buttons. Sure, I was interested in him, but he's… I don't know. He's just not the one. He's a perfectly nice guy, and he's cute – _really _cute – but life's too short to waste with someone you're not really that into." She paused to curse the dress designer, who obviously had skewed ideas about how women should be proportioned. "Why are you asking me this, anyway? It seems like you have a pretty good thing going with Darien."

Rei examined the next dress critically, taking her time to respond. "I really like this one. About Darien – I really like him. He respects me, and he respects my boundaries. I feel comfortable with him. But sometimes I feel like we've reached a point where things are a little too comfortable; do you know what I mean?

She sat down in a rustle of crushed velvet. "Like it's not exciting anymore? You feel like an old married couple? Or that he takes you for granted?"

"No, not really. It's difficult to explain." Rei focused her gaze on her hands. "We were friends before we started going out, but still, we both understood that there were certain things we weren't ready to talk about with each other. It's just the type of people we are. I thought that one day, we would reach that point, but it's more like we fell into this pattern, this channel of things we're okay with talking about, and it works for us, but we never really leave it."

She took a shuddering breath, then continued, "Darien is the calm spot in my life, and almost everything he does makes sense to me – until recently, anyway. I know that he cares about me, but I'm afraid that I won't be able to make him truly happy beyond a superficial level. How do I make him open up to me?"

Gently, Mina suggested, "Maybe you should try opening up to him first."

"But – what if he thinks it's weird, or too much to handle, or that I'm not who he thought I was?"

"It's not like you've been pretending to be something you're not around him, right?"

"No, of course not. Well, my temper is probably a little worse than he thinks it is. But sometimes when you find out new things about people and those things don't line up with your current image of them, it can change how you feel."

"If you really aren't compatible, wouldn't you want to find out sooner rather than later?"

* * *

A man with glasses and the café logo on his apron stopped them before they could enter Moonbeam Café. "Hey, guys. Are you here for the cooking contest?"

He felt her tense beside him. "The what?"

"The cooking contest."

Nevan closed his eyes in resignation. 'All right, guys, am I going to be hauled off to the room with the padded walls if I say a leaf told us we had to be here at 1 pm?'

'I'd suggest you let the lady handle this one,' Rigel replied.

Meanwhile, Lita was smiling brightly. "So anyone can enter? And all the materials will be provided, within reason?"

Nevan sensed that he had missed an important exchange.

"That's right," the man confirmed. "The winner of the contest will win a gift certificate, and their recipe will be the new featured dish at the café."

She turned to Nevan. "Okay, let's do this."

The man handed them a marker and two name tags. "Write your names on these and go ahead in. Good luck!"

"Wait, what?" Nevan trailed her helplessly, feeling like even the cheerful tinkle of the bells hanging over the door was mocking him.

Lita picked up an apron from the stack and handed him another. "We're going to enter the cooking contest."

He regarded the apron, its strings dangling limply, with the same trepidation he reserved for facing crying freshman girls on his floor. "Lita, I can't cook anything besides cereal, ramen, and microwave popcorn."

"That's all right. You can be my sous-chef." She nudged him gently towards an empty station. "Don't worry about. Just do what I tell you to do, all right?"

"What if we don't win?"

"Trust me, we're going to win. Now put on your apron." After he had done so, Lita smoothed the label she had written his name and a smiley face on over his chest. She turned away quickly to hide her blush.

"So what are we going to make?"

The team at the station next to them appeared to be carving something out of a large block of chocolate, and he could see more teams making liberal use of foam, fondant, and a million other things that didn't look remotely edible to him.

"Well, let's take a look at what they have for us." She strolled past the offerings with a critical eye, talking in a low, constant stream in an effort to put Nevan at ease. "Oh, look at these beautiful McIntosh apples. I know – let's make apple dumplings. They're relatively quick to make, and they taste delicious."

Nevan scratched his head. "That sounds good, but… do you think it's fancy enough? Are they expecting some gourmet recipe?"

He saw the competitive light come into her eyes. "After one bite of these hot out of the oven with some vanilla ice cream, you'll be hooked. I don't believe in making pretentious food for the sake of being fancy. This is a dish that makes you think, 'Thank goodness it's fall; these taste like all the best things about this season, and I want to be home by a roaring fire, with a plate of apple dumplings and surrounded by the people I love.'"

She paused, looking uncertain for the first time that afternoon. "That's the important thing, right?"

Without thinking, he reached over and brushed a silky brown curl out of her eyes. "Definitely sounds like the right idea to me."

She drew in a startled breath, then smiled brilliantly. "Okay, then. While I pick over these apples, can you grab some butter, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla bean pods? I'll get the other things and meet you back at our station."

Nevan started heading in the direction she indicated before he realized he might not recognize everything he was supposed to retrieve. To his relief, all the items were labeled, and he made it back to their station only a little after she did.

"Terrific. Now wash your hands," she instructed, then showed him how to peel and core the apples.

When she rolled up the sleeves of her russet red sweater to work with the dough, he couldn't help but notice how toned her arms were. She was good at blocking out the noise and distractions around them, chatting easily without seeming the least bit rushed even though her hands moved at a frighteningly efficient pace.

"This is nice," he remarked in surprise, enjoying the feeling of them working together so companionably.

Thinking he was talking about their apple dumplings, she leaned over the bowl, inhaling deeply. "Mm, yeah. We got a good mixture of spices. I'd say we make a pretty good team, don't you?"

He grinned back. "The best."

* * *

"All right, contestants! Time's up! Please step away from your stations, and let the judging commence."

As they joined the other competitors, Nevan eyed the plate of apple dumpling topped with a speckled scoop of vanilla ice cream on their countertop. It might not look as snazzy as the neighboring concoction with its cloud of spun sugar, but he personally thought it smelled like heaven. He didn't think it was entirely his imagination that the corners of the stone-faced judges' mouths quirked upwards as they tasted the dumplings or that they paused a moment longer in front of their station to savor the tart juices and spiced pastry.

When he whispered his suspicions to Lita, she shushed him, but he saw the fleeting smile pass over her lips even as he noticed that her clasped hands were white-knuckled. He reached out and gently disentangled them, keeping the left securely in his right one.

They stood hand-in-hand waiting for the verdict to be announced, and Nevan didn't even think of asking the stars for a prediction. He was happy to be standing here next to the girl with the strong hands and the beautiful eyes, waiting breathlessly to see what surprises life would hand them next.

"And the winner is… Lita and Nevan's apple dumplings!"

They were swarmed by the judges and the owners of the café, and for several chaotic minutes he wasn't sure what was going on. People were chattering about the delicious food, asking for the recipe – he directed them all to Lita, and giving them details about the gift certificate and the new menu item (none of which Nevan was particularly interested in). When someone handed him a thick white envelope, he pocketed it without unsealing it.

At last, they were finally able to make their escape, and exited the café. Nevan pulled the envelope out of his pocket and handed it to Lita. "Here. You should open it."

She glanced up at him, her cheeks still flushed with excitement. "Well, here goes." She untucked the flap and pulled out the gift certificate and a folded square of parchment.

In all the events of the afternoon, he had nearly forgotten the whole reason for entering the cooking contest. "Is that– "

Lita unfolded the square, and they read over the lines of a poem as cryptic as the one Ami and Zane had found:

_Seekers of the Quest take heed_

_A gem was hidden long ago_

_Ask the noble, gallant steed_

_Where to seek this precious prize._

_Seekers of the Quest take note_

_Fear not the cunning of your foes_

_Who cannot swim nor even float_

_Atop the reedy pond._

_Seekers of the Quest beware_

_Stay to fight the winged beasts_

_Flee the chill hand of despair_

_Let the moonlight guide your way._

_All ten of you must come together_

_All ten of you must come as one_

_To seek the crystal which glows gold_

_And solve the Quest as was foretold._


	9. Chapter 9

_Nine_

Ami flipped through the lab handout, trying to block out the rowdy duo to her left. Over the course of the semester, she had seen them try everything from filling the strikers with alcohol and trying to light it on fire to snorting the aspirin they had just synthesized, which was sure to be loaded with impurities. She was surprised they hadn't incurred any bodily harm yet, although she wasn't ruling out the possibility. There were only two weeks left to the semester, but she had every confidence in their ability to wreak mayhem and havoc in that time. She just hoped that in the end, the chemistry building would still be standing.

The longsuffering TA reviewed the procedure and settled in for what he clearly expected to be a torturous three hours of answering questions he had already answered and enforcing a minimal standard of lab safety. After he finished, Ami headed for the back of the room to procure the necessary ingredients. She had just set her crucible to heat and things seemed to be proceeding nicely until a scuffle distracted her.

Instead of paying attention to the experiment, the goons were fooling around, pretending to spill acid on each other, and the giggly girl in the second row of stations was inadvertently egging them on with her squeals.

Ami moved her things nearly to the edge of the counter and tried to ignore them, but this was difficult to do since they were getting closer and closer by the minute. Her gaze darted between her setup and the baggy gray sweatshirt that was steadily encroaching on her personal space.

"Please stop–"

The polite request caught in her throat as a trickle of highly concentrated acid sloshed over the edge of the beaker. The redhead in the gray sweatshirt jumped back, colliding with Ami before she could get out of the way. A cold rush burned its way through her, a sensation like touching metal in the heart of winter.

In the next second, her crucible shattered, sending shards of white porcelain everywhere. Ami closed her eyes as a fragment scored her cheek, and the impression of biting cold in the overheated lab building vanished. A stinging sensation and the trickle of liquid against her skin made her put her finger to her cheek, and Ami blinked when it came away red.

The TA rushed over from where he'd been helping another student, exclaiming in shock and dismay. Figuring it was the sight of the blood that made her turn so pale, he ordered the students to turn off their Bunsen burners and _not to touch anything_ until he recruited the first unfortunate graduate student he came across to take over for him.

As he walked her over to the nearby student health center, he speculated that the crucible might have been cracked to begin with after so many years of rough use or that its shattering might have been due to a cold breeze coming in from the window. Ami nodded politely, but for once, she wasn't going with the logical explanation. She was fairly sure that frigid blast of air had come from _her_, and battered lab equipment wouldn't explain the chunks of ice melting slowly on the scuffed floor tiles.

* * *

Zane whistled cheerfully. Life was good: his three-hour class was canceled for next week since the professor would be out of town, his dad had gotten basketball tickets for their favorite team over winter break, and a couple of them were meeting tonight to check out the secret passages from the blueprints Serena and Darien had found at the orphanage. He suspected Darien and Kent had already tried out a few of them, but from what Serena had told him, there were dozens more that remained to be explored.

His smile widened when a familiar head of cropped dark hair caught his eye. He changed direction, narrowly avoiding a collision with an angry bicyclist who shouldn't have been on the campus's main artery in the first place, and estimated his chances of finagling Ami into having lunch with him.

Zane had just decided that the odds were ever so slightly in his favor when he spotted tall, dark and handsome at Ami's side. His good mood evaporated when he saw the older student's earnest expression and the way she smiled up at him.

He wavered under the leafless plane tree, wondering whether he would have to quit the field. But after a last exchange of words, the interloper made his exit and Ami continued along the path, a look of mild surprise crossing her face when she spotted him.

"Oh, hi, Zane. I was hoping I might run into you."

It was difficult to stop a gleeful grin from spreading across his face, but he thought he did a good job of keeping his voice casual, all things considered. "Really? In that case – what happened to you?" he demanded when he got close enough to see the bandage on her face.

Ami started to put her fingers up to her cheek and quickly pulled them back. "It's nothing serious, just a scratch from a small accident in lab today." She conveniently left out the part about the stitches.

Zane stood in her path, keeping a gentle but firm grip on her shoulder as he examined the square of white gauze. "That looks like it must have been a pretty big scratch."

She felt her cheeks slowly heating from the intensity of his gaze, and the warmth drove the last vestiges of cold away. "I'm fine, really. It hardly hurts, and I've just come from having it treated."

He stepped back reluctantly. "What kind of accident was it?"

"Actually…that's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about."

Inside his jacket pockets, his fingers crossed hopefully. "You haven't eaten yet, have you? Why don't we grab lunch? You can tell me all about it."

"I'd like that – if you're sure you didn't have any other plans."

When he reassured her that he didn't, she smiled, and he felt his heart skip a beat. Neither of them noticed when soft, fat flakes of snow began falling in their wake.

* * *

It was Friday morning, and Jayden was running late. He had overslept and was supposed to have met Rei to work on their final project ten minutes ago. Now he was running frantically around the room looking for his things.

"Textbook, textbook, where are you?" he muttered to himself. When the drawers banged open of their own accord and his desk table wiggled one leg experimentally, he swore.

"Telext – tckex – txet! Txet!" he finally managed, and they stilled.

Jayden rubbed his temples. Ever since his powers had manifested, he had had to forcibly restrain himself from saying things like "context" or "the text supports this interpretation" in recitation, and it was making him sound like a moron. In fact, he was trying to participate as little as possible these days. The only good thing he could think of was that recitation only came once a week, and they were nearing the end of the semester.

"The Quest is ruining my life," he said bitterly.

"Can't ruin something that didn't exist in the first place," his sneaker said snidely.

He threw it back into the closet and shut the door, regretting having acquiesced to the shoe's pleas to stay animated.

"You're late," was Rei's greeting.

"Well, good morning to you, too," he replied as she got up and gathered her things. "I'm sorry, I overslept, and Shoe was being snarky."

The slight smile and the apology that had started to form on her lips disappeared when he asked, "So, do you have any plans for winter break?"

"Not really," she said shortly.

Rei could tell, without looking, that Jayden had raised his eyebrows but refrained from making any further comment. It irritated her, even though it would have irritated her more if he had said anything.

The prickly feeling that had started with an early morning phone call from her father – or rather, her father's assistant, who had then put him on the line – hadn't gone away, as she'd hoped it would. In fact, it was getting stronger, and so was her tension headache.

If there was anything she disliked almost as much as arguing with Darien, it was talking to her father.

They settled down to work without talking any more than was necessary. They sat at adjacent sides of the table closest to the fireplace, which allowed Jayden to watch her from the corner of his eye. In spite of her tart greeting, Rei seemed unusually listless.

When she put her hand up to her temples for the second time, he asked, "Are you feeling all right?"

"Yes."

"Want some water? Tea?" He knew by now that she hated coffee and only drank green tea.

"No. I'm fine."

"We can do this some other time–"

"I said it's fine!" she exclaimed, pushing back her chair. In the same moment, the small fire flared up, spraying sparks outwards as it roaring into the flue and consumed the synthetic firelogs in one greedy gulp.

As the flames receded to their normal size, Jayden turned to look at her. His ears were still ringing from the other students' surprised screams. "Must have been a freak accident. Are you hurt?" he asked.

"No…" Even as she said it, she glanced down at her fingers bemusedly.

He frowned and reached for her hands. "Did you get burned?"

"I don't think so. They just feel a little–"

He sucked in a sharp breath and yanked his hands back.

"Warm," Rei finished, her amethyst eyes wider than ever. "Are you all right?"

"I'll live. But you're telling me that only feels _warm_ to you?" Jayden asked incredulously.

She looked down at her fingers again and wiggled them cautiously. "Yes. Pleasantly warm, like if you put your hands against a mug of a hot drink, but nowhere near burning. Did it feel hotter than that to you?"

He smiled wryly. "Let's just say I wouldn't describe it as falling within my 'pleasant' range for temperatures."

At her stricken look, he added quickly, "But still not hot enough to burn. I'm fine, I promise. But let's get out of here before something else crazy happens."

* * *

"…and Gary walked me over to the student health center right away, and he even stayed until they were finished to make sure I was all right, so I'm perfectly fine, Zane."

"Who's Gary?" Zane was quickly coming to the conclusion that he had never met a Gary he'd liked.

"Oh, my lab TA."

"I see. So he's good?"

Ami gave the question some serious consideration. "Research-wise, he's probably fairly good at what he does. But in lab, he's not very careful and he looks quite bored most of the time, which I guess I can't blame him for since the labs aren't at all interesting, but I don't think it's very encouraging for the students."

He suddenly felt a lot more cheerful. "Definitely not."

She continued earnestly, "But the point is, I don't think the outside temperature was cold enough today for a breeze from a window to shatter the crucible. I think it came from _me_. And it left a lot of ice on the floor, and I can't think of where else that could have come from."

"So you could be like Iceman!" he said enthusiastically.

"Sorry?"

"Iceman? From _X-Men_?"

He paused expectantly, but she only shook her head.

"No? Well, then, ask Jayden to see his collection sometime. Iceman makes his first appearance in volume 1, I think. Anyway, it's definitely one of the coolest superpowers to have."

Zane was momentarily distracted, drawn into an internal struggle over whether his telekinetic abilities measured up against hers. It was resolved when he reminded himself that being able to raid the fridge without ever having to get up from his chair was pretty hard to beat.

When he looked up again, he saw that she appeared more worried than pleased. "What's wrong?"

"What did it feel like when your power first manifested itself?"

He frowned slightly, tapping his fingers on the battered metal table. "Well, I guess it was kind of surprising. Exciting. Like making a basket you didn't really expect to go in, or one you didn't even realize you had started to shoot in the first place."

Ami stared down at her tray, which still held most of her lunch. "It didn't feel that way for me at all. It felt like…losing control, like something else took over my body. I didn't know what was happening, and it scared me.

"While I was at the student health center, all I could think was, what if I had hit one of those guys instead of just breaking the crucible?"

"It would have served those morons right."

"Temperatures that cold can give someone a serious case of frostbite! They could have lost a limb!"

"Hey. Calm down and breathe for a minute. First, you need to stop with the what-ifs. None of us could have foreseen this happening, and nothing happened to them. You didn't hurt anyone – anyone else, at least. Second, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but these things take practice. You have no idea how many things crashed to the floor before I decided it was a good idea to practice with pillows. Well, that and the RA came over to see if I was drunk or fighting with Melvin.

"You're right. It didn't feel entirely natural to me at first, either. But the more I practiced, the more I felt like it was something I'd known how to do all along, and the first time was like catching something that just slipped out of my fingers. It got away from me for a split second. I haven't felt like that since."

"Really?"

"Well, there was that time Kent was beating me at MarioKart and I really wanted to distract him, but other than that, nope." He grinned at her, and she smiled back hesitantly.

"I bet you can make the best snowmen or ice sculptures now," he said, suddenly inspired. Inclining his head towards the snow falling thickly outside the window, he suggested, "Why don't we practice together?"

"That sounds like a good idea," she murmured.

"Let's go now," he said, getting up to bus his tray.

"Right now? Don't you have class in fifteen minutes?"

He smirked at her. "I haven't gone to that class since the first week of the semester. It's totally useless."

Ami still looked mildly disapproving, but she followed him out the doors of the dining hall.

"Hey, how'd you know I have a class now?" Zane asked.

"We shared all our class schedules so we could decide on good meeting and research times."

"But that was like two months ago," he said.

Ami shrugged. "I have a very good memory."

"Are you sure you weren't just keeping an eye on me?" he suggested coyly.

"Oh, no," she replied immediately. "For example, I know that Serena and Lita are in Spanish class now, Darien's most likely at his lab, and–"

"Nevermind," Zane said, his shoulders slumping slightly as they walked on. "You've convinced me."

Ami tilted her chin upwards, savoring the distinct quality of winter air during a fresh snowfall. "Thank you so much for talking with me, Zane, and for taking the time out of your day to practice with me. I feel so much better now."

"Really? You do?"

"Yes." She smiled at him, and her eyes seemed bluer when her lashes were loaded with snowflakes. "I love winter."

On impulse, Zane said, "You just gave me the best idea. Tell you what: let's have a party before everyone goes away for winter break."

"A party?" she looked politely puzzled instead of thrilled, but he was sure his sudden brainstorm was a good one.

"Yeah. We'll hold it at Darien's place, and you can show off your new powers."

"Oh, but Zane…"

"Come on, it'll be fun to get together with everyone. Don't you think?"

She regarded him for a moment with those serious blue eyes, then smiled again. "Yes, I do."

* * *

Jayden wasn't sure where they were headed besides away from the building, so he was relieved when Rei said, "Can we stop here? You don't mind being outside for a bit while it's snowing, do you?"

He brushed a light layer of powdery snow off the nearest bench. "Nope. It's not all that cold, either."

They sat in companionable silence for awhile, watching the snow sugarcoating the evergreens. Finally, Rei said quietly, "I don't think what happened with the fire was a freak accident. I think…I think I might have caused it."

"Does that bother you?" Jayden inquired.

She glanced up at him, but he kept his gaze straight ahead and his posture relaxed, watching the irregular procession of students down the paths.

"Yes and no. I've always felt a sort of affinity for fire. My grandfather is a Shinto priest, and I grew up tending the sacred fire in our shrine. What happened today didn't frighten me. But I wonder if it should have."

"Why should it?"

"Well, for one thing, it could have been quite dangerous. And for another… well, people aren't really meant to have these sorts of abilities."

"Meant to? So it's a question of destiny?"

Rei frowned at him. "You keep answering me with questions and making me talk more. I think you would make a very good psychiatrist."

He put a look of horror on his face. "Anything but that!"

She smiled but continued, "Anyway, I don't think people should have the power to shoot fire from their fingertips at will."

"You think you can do that?" he asked interestedly.

"Jayden! That's not the point."

He leaned back again, knocking more snow off the armrest. "Well, put it in context. Kent can melt locks off doors, Mina can become a human flashlight, Nevan has daily conversations with the _stars_, and I can bring – whoa!"

He leapt up as the stone statue they had been sitting in front of shuddered to life, shedding snow like a dog shaking itself after a bath. The state was one of an armored warrior on horseback and bore a strong resemblance to Gattamelata.

The horse rose on its hindquarters, tossing its mane proudly, while its rider drew the sheathed sword at his side. That was all Rei's eyes took in before Jayden's back and outstretched arms blocked her view as he placed himself in front of her protectively.

"Who awakens this Guardian of the Quest?" the statue demanded in a sonorous voice, leveling his blade at Jayden's heart.

"Uh–" Jayden found that it was surprisingly hard to think when confronted with the possibility of being impaled by a giant, formerly stone sword. It seemed plenty sharp now.

"Lord Jadeite does." Rei's voice came from behind him, the words delivered calmly and clearly.

The warrior retracted his blade and bowed deeply. "Ah! Guardian Mars. I didn't see you there."

Jayden sat down again, feeling rather weak at the knees, and they and the statue studied each other for a moment.

"How may I be of service to you?" he asked courteously.

"Well… it was sort of an accident." At the affronted expression that passed over the man's face, Jayden added hurriedly, "But if you know anything about where we could find, er, Prince Endymion and Princess Serenity, that would be terrific."

"I'm afraid that is something you will have to discover for yourselves, and not something that you may be told."

"I was afraid that might be the case," Jayden muttered.

"Can you tell us anything you might know about them?" Rei asked.

The statue smiled unexpectedly. "I didn't know Prince Endymion, but I taught the young princess to ride her first horse. Her spirit was unparalleled, as was her heart. She couldn't speak to a person without making them smile. Our sorrows were her sorrows, and her joy was our joy. I fought for her gladly."

He looked down, patted his horse on the neck. "That's all I may reveal to you about the princess. But I can give you two more things, and some advice."

He presented the sword, now sheathed and hilt first, and a milky green stone to Jayden. "These will aid you in your Quest to find the prince and princess. Use them well."

As Jayden took the blade reverently, which was much lighter than he had expected, the statue continued, "The pommel is set with a firestone, which means it is impervious to the hottest flame. Luck to you and the rest of the Ten."

He bowed, and before their eyes, he and his mount returned to their original, immobile stone forms.

"Well…that was something," Rei murmured, still watching the statue.

"'Something' is one way to put it. How am I going to get this past the security guards?" Jayden asked, staring at the sword.

"We'll figure it out."

* * *

Mina lay on her bed, listening wide-eyed as Rei related their adventure to her. Rei was sitting at the desk with Artemis on her lap, his eyes closed in ecstasy as she scratched him gently behind the ears.

"And he pulled the sword out and pointed it at you, just like that, and Jayden didn't even flinch?"

"That's what happened," Rei confirmed. Her graceful shrug disturbed Artemis, who opened one eye in displeasure.

Mina shook her head. "I don't think I would have enjoyed being in that situation. So where's the sword now? I'd like to see it."

"We ended up leaving it at Kent's. Zane helped me distract the security guard while Jayden and Kent got the sword up the stairs." Rei smiled suddenly. "Which reminds me. Darien's holding a party next weekend. You'll come, won't you?"

"Which day is it?"

"Friday night. When Zane was 'suggesting' the idea to Darien, I made sure to lobby for Friday instead of Saturday since I know Saturday night's your sorority's charity gala. It is, isn't it?"

"Yes, thanks for remembering." Mina smiled at her. "I'll be there for sure, then. Actually, I wouldn't have minded pretending to be sick for the gala and hanging out with everyone even if the dates hadn't worked out that way."

Rei glanced up in surprise. "Really? Aren't you looking forward to it?"

She sighed and fell back onto the bed, managing to land squarely in the center of her pillows. "Not really. The more things come down to the wire, the less I think it's worth all the fuss and drama."

Rei's expression was one of confusion. "But the point of the night is to raise money for a charity, isn't it?"

Mina smiled wryly. "Yes, but most of that will be coming from the ticket sales, which are basically done. For many of the attendees, the objective will be somewhat less altruistic. They'll be going to see and be seen, and keep track of who's going with whom and who actually ends up leaving with whom. It's mildly exciting the first time around, but when girls start crying in front of the bathroom mirrors, it just feels like high school all over again."

She made a face. "That doesn't sound like much fun at all. But you'll look wonderful in that dress you bought."

"I will, but it's slightly less thrilling when you're only looking good for yourself and other girls."

"What happened to your date?"

"Oh – he and Ana Cecilia started going out, and I thought it was silly for them not to go together. I'm not going to stand in the way of true love. I did tell her to go after him when I found out she was interested, so I have only myself to blame," Mina said airily. "Plus, Ana Cecilia's date is a tool, and I'd rather go by myself than swap with her."

Rei straightened as Artemis jumped down from her lap and padded over to the bed. "Why don't you ask someone else to go with you?"

She shrugged and reached down to stroke the cat's back. "Most of my friends already have dates, and I know Nevan really doesn't want to go this year."

"What about Kent?"

Mina glanced up, her expression a cross between amusement and disbelief. "I really can't imagine him wanting to go to something like this, Rei."

"I think he would go if you asked him."

"If I'm going to torment someone, I might as well torment Nevan, who actually _knows_ what he would be in for."

"But Nevan's not interested in you, and Kent is."

Mina started laughing, but stopped when she realized Rei was serious. "What in the world makes you think he's interested?"

Rei waved her hands distractedly. "I don't know. It's just – the way he watches you, and when you talk to each other. You have chemistry."

"You mean that look of exasperation he gets when he thinks I'm doing something dumb and he wants to do it another way?" she asked dryly.

"No!"

"We'll just have to agree to disagree. Even if he doesn't hate me now, he certainly would if I dragged him to an event like this. _If_ he would even say yes in the first place. Anyway, what's the occasion for Darien's party? It's not his birthday, is it?"

"No, that was in August. The party's actually Zane's idea, and we talked Darien into it."

"You helped?" This, on top of the tale of the statue giving them a sword and Rei's claim that Kent was interested in her, was turning out to be one of their more surprising conversations.

"It sounds like fun, all of us getting together before winter break starts. And to celebrate the end of finals."

Mina frowned. "Why did Zane want to throw a party?"

" Oh, he said something about how he'd promised Ami. Although Ami doesn't seem like the partying type," Rei said thoughtfully.

She smiled gleefully. "She's not. I bet Zane just wants to spend more time with her and is using this as an excuse."

"Really?" Rei was silent for a moment while Mina blissfully imagined all the ways she could torment Zane over winter break about his not-so-secret crush. "I can see that. They might be cute together, wouldn't they?"

"Oh, yes. I think we should help them along, otherwise he'll screw it up somehow. Or he'll ask her out and Ami will be too shy to talk to him again before graduation rolls around. Don't you think so?" Without waiting for Rei's response, she continued, "I think Friday would be a great time to put our plan into action."

"_Our_ plan? Mina…"

* * *

Word spread quickly about the newly-discovered powers, but between finals studying and term paper writing, most of them didn't have enough time to say anything except excited but appropriately vague exclamations when they passed each other on the way to and from class, exams, the library, or the coffee shop for another caffeine fix. Nearly all of them, however, made time to drop by Kent's apartment to take a look at the sword.

When he heard yet another knock at the door, he sighed and saved the paper he was working on. He raised his eyebrows when he peered through the peephole and saw that it was Rei.

"Good morning," he greeted her after he opened the door.

Of all the girls besides Mina, he thought he probably knew Rei the best. They had actually been seeing each other quite often, since the two of them and Darien studied together fairly frequently. But Darien wasn't with her today.

"Good morning. I hope I'm not interrupting you. I won't stay long," she reassured him.

He smiled. "That's fine. Would you like anything to drink?

"No, thank you. I'm fine."

Kent regarded her curiously as they stood in the entryway. She didn't seem inclined to come in further. "Everyone and their uncle has been by to see the sword, but you've already seen it, of course."

Rei's lips twitched in a faint smile. "Sorry about that. It is pretty impressive, but haven't they got better things to do?"

"Nothing as cool as this," he said. "At least, that's what they tell me."

He was waiting politely for her to bring up the reason for her visit, so she decided she might as well jump right in. "Well, I was wondering… Are you doing anything on Saturday night?"

His knee-jerk reaction was alarm before he reminded himself that Rei already had a boyfriend and surely wouldn't be asking him on a date. "Not really. My last final is on Wednesday and my last paper is due on Thursday at midnight – 11:59, excuse me – but I didn't have any plans. We aren't having two parties, are we?"

She laughed. "No, just the one. I don't think Darien would be able to survive planning two parties so close to each other."

Rei fidgeted when he continued to eye her curiously. "Well, you see, Saturday is the night of Mina's charity gala. The one she's been planning all semester?"

He nodded. "She's told me a little about it."

"It turns out that her date isn't her date anymore. He's going with someone else."

"That's too bad. Is she very upset about it?" he asked, concerned.

"Not really. It's a long story, but it seems like she actually played matchmaker between her date and her roommate. But it does leave her dateless for the gala."

Kent blinked. "So she asked you to ask me to be her date?" It seemed rather roundabout to him.

"No! She thinks it would be boring to make someone else go with her. I'm just…telling you about it."

He asked, "You think she would want me to go with her?"

"I think you would have fun together. Don't you?" she asked quickly.

"Well, sure. I mean, I think I would – because Mina is a fun person to be around, and she makes sure those around her are having a good time. But I'm not exactly Mr. Congeniality, if you know what I mean." In spite of his seeming reluctance, Kent was already wondering if there was enough time to dry clean his suit before the event.

"I don't think Mina's looking for Mr. Congeniality."

He flushed at her knowing look. "What if she's already asked someone else?"

"She hasn't. I'm positive."

"Well… am I supposed to just call her up and tell her I'm volunteering to go with her?" Kent gave her a hard look. "It doesn't seem like she knows that you're telling me about it."

Rei smiled. "I'll take care of it. Just be ready to pick her up at six-thirty on Saturday night. Oh, and maybe some flowers, but I could pick those up for you–"

"I'll get them. I know how these things work, Rei."

"You do?" she asked in surprise.

"I went to one of these things before. I have to say, I didn't think I would ever be going to one again, but maybe things will be different this time around."

"I'm sure they will be."

* * *

**AN**: Apologies for the delay in getting this chapter written/posted. You can tell from the season when I was supposed to be writing this, but better late than never… Thank you so much for reading and reviewing. It really helps to keep me motivated, and it is much appreciated. Many thanks!


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